Neko No Jutsu
by GoldenFyre
Summary: A jutsu gone wrong lands Sasuke in Naruto's house,as a cat no less and in his new house, he finds himself learning that he never really knew Naruto at all. SasuNaru another Smart!Naruto fic
1. A New Body

Hullo all! I'm SpiritsFlame, and yeah, I know this chapter is short, it's supposed to be, it's just sorta like a tester, to see if you guys think I should continue or not. See notes at bottom for more info. Oh, and I don't own Naruto, promise.

It wasn't his fault. That's what Sasuke tells people when they ask what happened. It was the Hokage's fault for messing up the labels on the dumb jutsu's. Naruto always said that if Sasuke hadn't been reading the forbidden scroll in the first place then it wouldn't have mattered if the Hokage had mislabeled it or not. Tsunade protests that it wasn't mislabeled at all, she had done it on purpose to foil people who read it without permission, which was always said with a pointed look at the youngest Uchiha. Sasuke usually then asked that even if you did have permission, the jutsu would still have the wrong name on it. Tsunade pointed out that the fourth Hokage had a jutsu that anyone with permission could say that would restore the titles to their proper place and a counter jutsu to shuffle it once more. The argument would continue along this line for quite some time, until someone, usually Sakura or her daughter Harmony, pointed out that if whatever had happened hadn't happened, then both Sasuke and Naruto would probably be very alone in their separate houses. Then their daughter Haku would usually ask what had happened and her brother would roll his eyes and proclaim that he could care less about some stupid romance, even if his dad had turned into a cat. Which only made Haku more curious and so the story began- - -

- - -It started on a dark stormy night. In all actuality it had been a bright sunny day in the middle of July, but that was what Sasuke said, and no one really wanted to argue with him about such petty things as facts. Sasuke had managed, after long last, to get his hands on a secret scroll. Unfortunately, he hadn't had a person tell him where to get it and how to work it, like most of the other people had when the scroll had come into their possession. So when he saw the hand signals for a jutsu that was said to drain your enemies chakra and give it to you, he hadn't even hesitated. He had done almost all of the fifty hand signs without stopping, his hands moving with years of practice, his sharingan insuring the quick memorization that meant he didn't have to glance down at the scroll every few signs.

He felt a bit strange not shouting out the name of the jutsu as he performed the final sign, but some things couldn't be helped. He performed the final hand movement, horse, and crouched down with his hand on the earth, expecting to feel a large amount of chakra flow into him. Nothing happened. Correction, something happened but nothing involving large amounts of chakra flowing into him. Instead he felt as he was being squeezed through a very strangely shaped tube. He fell to all fours, closing his eyes as he tried not to cry out in pain. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself looking, not at human hands but some distinctly not human paws that were for some reason, attached to his very not human body. Something had gone wrong. He wasn't sure what, but unless suddenly receiving large amounts of chakra made you a cat, this was not how the jutsu was supposed to end up.

Yes I know this first chapter is short, the rest will be longer but only if I get at least five reviews telling me to continue, 'cause why would I want to continue a fic no one reads? So if you want more, click the little button!


	2. A New House

Oh my god! 10 reviews, on one chapter, in 1 day! That has never happened to me before! I hardly even have that many on my other story, and it has 8 chapters! So because I am so thrilled, here's your update, as promised! Oh, and by the way, Kyuubi is in this chapter and for now he only speaks in Narutos head, which Sasuke can't hear, so, therefor, you can't hear it. . but I'm sure you can figure it out.

- - -Recap- - -

- - -_Something had gone wrong. He wasn't sure what, but unless suddenly receiving large amounts of chakra made you a cat, this was not how the jutsu was supposed to end up._ _- - -_

'What the hell?' thought the Uchiha, this wasn't right, couldn't be right! It couldn't be! His tail waved in his agitation. Wait. Stop, rewind. Tail! The hell! He was an Uchiha, Uchiha's did not have tails! Tails were cute and nothing cute was ever, ever, _ever, _seen on an Uchiha personal. He twitched his nose, which was strange, because he didn't remember his nose being able to twitch before.

He realized that twitching his nose and waving his (non-existent, according to the laws of nature) tail was not going to solve anything, or even tell if he was some sort of cute, fluffy animal (oh please no!) or not. So after some more tail waving thinking, he decided that the best thing to do was go to the village and try and find something that could help.

With that decided, he used his very awkward paws to hide the scroll in his useless clothes, then using his teeth to drag said bundle to a convenient little hole in the roots of a nearby tree. With that done, because he was an Uchiha and nothing could be done half way. He made his way to the village, down the wearily beaten down path. The rocks there cut into his new paws, especially the front two, as the back two had been his feet, they were slightly built up from the few times he had gone bare-foot.

He heard footsteps on the path. Fearing that it would be a girl, he ducked off the path into a bush and crouched down between the branches. He peered down, where he could see the approaching feet clearly from his hiding spot. The feet, which he was relieved to see were not girl feet, stopped in front of him. Sasuke crouched down farther, still not wanting be found. The person was now making strange sniffing noises, before Sasuke suddenly found himself being swept up by a pair of strong hands that brought him eye level with his captor's startling blue eyes (A/N: OK, who didn't see that coming? Anyone? Anyone at all?)

"Hullo there little one. I thought I smelled you." Said Sasuke's own teammate, rival and pretty much everything but the kitchen sink guy, Uzumaki Naruto. Sasuke wondered briefly what Naruto meant when he had said that he had 'smelled him' but figured that the idiot just couldn't tell the difference between catching a glimpse of Sasuke, and smelling him. Needless to say, he didn't credit Naruto with any skills whatsoever, or any thing of much importance for that matter. "Well," Naruto continued "I was going to go train, but you look like you need the help more then I do."

With that and not paying any attention to Sasuke's struggles. He headed back to the village. When Sasuke saw this, he stopped struggling, figuring that he could at least take this free ride to the village, then ditch the dobe when he got there. Not to be to obvious, but this didn't exactly to plan, as when they had stepped into the central market of Konoha, a.k.a his 'ditch the dobe' location, and he had begun to struggle, Naruto had only tightened his grip, Sasuke was thrilled to find he now had claws and used them to his advantage, clawing at Naruto's bare arms.

"Hey now, stop that, this is for your own good you know." Naruto said crossly. Sasuke, being the smart ninja that he was, figured out that this line of attack wasn't really working, and that Naruto was probably not going to let go of him before they got to his house. Plus this would give him a chance to see how the moron lived. He sheathed his claws, still thrilled that he could do that. And settled back in to the dobe's surprisingly soft, warm hold. He peered around him in a curious manner, Konoha looked much different. It took him a minute to realize that it was because, when ever he was in Konoha, all the villagers smiled and waved at him. With Naruto, it was the opposite. Every villager he saw was glaring at Naruto. Some of them looked as if they were considering throwing stuff. He heard angry whispers follow Naruto like snakes. His new sensitive hearing picked up phrases.

'...rotten deamon...'

'...won't sell to him...'

'...say it was his fault...'

'...stay away from him, son...'

'...danger...'

'...that poor kitten...'

'...probably gonna kill it...'

The farther from the market they walked the louder the whispers became. When they were far enough from the center of Konoha, the people didn't even bother to whisper. A few people even said the things to him. Through every harsh word that Naruto had to hear, every curse and sneer and glare, Naruto's smile never wavered, never lost any of it's brightness. But when Sasuke looked up at his captor, his blue eyes were cold and hard and the Uchiha turned cat wondered if this was how Naruto always looked when he was alone.

Sasuke looked around again. He had been in this part of the village before, on a team mission, but then Naruto had acted like he had never seen the place before, getting lost every time Sakura or Sasuke took there eyes off him and now he was wandering the streets like an expert. After a bit Naruto stopped in front of a building that, while in relatively good condition, was not by any means the nicest place to live, in fact from the way Naruto had acted, he had lived here most of his life, and Sasuke was shocked that they had let a child live there, even though they were all 17 now.

Naruto pushed open the door, which did give Sasuke a chance to get away, but what happened next shocked him so much that he forgot all about it. The lady at the desk had looked up the sound of the bell, smiling that creepy 'Welcome to our humble establishment' smile, but that faded quickly as she saw Naruto.

"Oh, it's just you." she sneered "What's the cat for, you gonna torture it?" Naruto ignored her, only his tight grip on Sasuke revealed his fury, his smile never leaving his face as he headed up the stairs, even when the woman muttered audibly"I hope it claws you death." Naruto just kept climbing. When he reached the second floor, he looked around him, and seeing no one but Sasuke, broke into a run. He ran all way up to the top floor, which was at least seven more floors, yet when he reached the top he was not even winded. The Naruto that Sasuke knew could barley even have made it four. Naruto pulled a key out of his pocket and stuck it into the door that Sasuke hadn't even seen as he had been busy pondering what this could mean. Naruto pulled the door open, if Sasuke and been human, his jaw would have unhinged itself and fallen through the floor with such force it probably would have knocked the evil receptionist unconscious. Naruto's room was nothing like he would have expected. After seeing the lobby and knowing what he had known of Naruto, he had expected it to be a room covered with empty ramen cups and trash all over the place and for the walls to be covered with peeling paint and stuff. Instead the small room was painted a nice red, without managing to be overwhelming. The were shelves made of cherry wood on which all of Naruto's stuff was neatly arranged. He had one small couch. However Naruto just skipped this room and headed to a second room through a closed door down a small hallway, which was painted a pleasant cream colour. It was the bathroom. The walls were a pale blue and the tiles were dark blue. Sasuke must have been staring as Naruto said

"Yeah, I know it's not the best place, but a guy does what he can, I mean, you should have seen it before me an' Iruka-sensei decorated. And believe me, it took about 5 A-class missions to pay for the paint and stuff." Needless to say, this did not make Sasuke's confusion go away. A-class? Since when did Naruto go on A-class missions? And 5 of them? "Ok little one, let's get those paws healed, ne?" Naruto said, bringing Sasuke's attention to his tattered paws (A/N: He had been walking a lot before Naruto found him, and it obviously hurts to walk through a forest barefoot on all fours). "I bet your wondering, why, if I brought you home to heal you, why aren't I doing it in my bedroom." Naruto continued. Sasuke had not been wondering anything of the sort. But Naruto didn't know this so he answered Sasuke's (non-excitant) question. "Well the thing is, if I'm going to heal those cuts for you, they need to be clean, plus you're filthy, so, you now get a bath." and without warning any at all, he picked Sasuke up and dumped him into the bathtub full of freezing water that Sasuke didn't even remember him turning on. Sasuke didn't like this, at all. So he hissed and scratched and bit and all other sorts of horrid things, but for some reason when Naruto scratched behind his ears he suddenly stopped fighting, it just felt so good. Naruto smiled softly for a moment,

"Sorry it's so cold. The people here won't give me hot water, so I suppose you'll have to deal." he said as he picked up a bottle of shampoo and squirted it directly on Sasuke, but he kept scratching, so Sasuke didn't care. Naruto one handedly massaged it gently into a lather. Sasuke could feel it form a foam on his body, before he was suddenly dunked under. Not very hard, and he was let up a second later but still! Now not caring if he was being scratched or not, he hissed the second his head was above water, splashing water all over Naruto.

"Okay, ok, jeez." Naruto said, taking the cat from the water, and rubbing it with a worn down, rough towel. Sasuke's head poked through a hole. Naruto stared at him for a moment, the burst into laughter. Sasuke arched his back in anger, prepared to hiss and bite again, before he caught sight of himself in the mirror. He looked sort of like a drowned rat with the towel hanging from his neck like some stupid parody of a necklace. He wondered what he had looked like dry, if his now black/blue fur was really that colour or if it was the water shading it that colour. Funny as he knew he looked, Naruto's laughter was getting annoying. He pounced on the unsuspecting blond. Or so he thought, before he could land on Naruto with all his claws beared, the ninja suddenly rolled over and caught him in midair. This unsettled him so much he didn't even struggle as Naruto removed the towel from his neck and continued to rub him.

"Not this time little one, I have enough of your scratches. Well, actually, I kinda don't, but I would, if not for Kyuu." He said calmly. He continued to rub Sasuke as he turned his head as though listening.

"Yeah, you're right." he said to apparent thin air. "Kyuu says you need a name." he said to Sasuke again. "I think he's right. What do you think?" he asked Sasuke as though actually expecting an answer, when none came, except a tiny, confused meow, he grinned again. "Right, you can't answer. Sorry, I'm just used to small fluffy animals that can." He laughed. Sasuke was starting to think that Naruto had finally lost it. "Yes you are fluffy! Ok, maybe not fluffy, not like this guy, but defiantly fluffy for giant town destroying deamons." Sasuke knew that it was now a fact, Naruto was officially off his rocker. Naruto wasn't paying attention to Sasuke's revelation. He was arguing with the voice in his head "Ok, yes, I admit, he needs a name. Got any suggestions oh-almighty-knower-of-all? Yea I thought so." Naruto picked Sasuke up and headed to his room. Suddenly he turned bright red and almost dropped poor Sasuke on the floor. "LIKE HELL I'M NAMING HIM THAT!" Naruto yelled "I will name him that only if there is no other name we can think of. ...Well, I guess so, kinda, a bit, ok a lot, but if anyone ever heard...Well yeah, duh I know that, it took me almost a month to invent the jutsu. Ok fine you win." The (now dubbed insane) ninja turned to Sasuke and said "Sasuke. you're name is now Sasuke." 'The hell?' why would Naruto name his pet after him? Even if the voices in his head had told him so. Naruto sighed "I guess now I'll have a Sasuke who'll listen, even if it's not the real one." Which only left Sasuke to wonder. Who was this new Naruto and why did he sound so sad when he said what had about a Sasuke listing to him?

IMPORTANT: For those of you who didn't get it, Harmony is Sakura's daughter, who the other parent is will be up to the voters. The choices: Ino or Lee, to be decided when it gets that far in the story. Haku is Sasuke's and Naruto's daughter, as is her older brother, who I might decided to make Kakashi and Iruka's son later, all of this will be explained later.

Now, to the reviewers:

Imbrium4: I'm glad you love SasuNeko so much, and I hope the note up there unconfuzzled you, at least as far as who's was who's, if not how it is biologically possible.

LoveMeKags: Kym, thanks for the review and all, but could you, I dunno, not put my name on your reviews? I like my name being a secret, thanks.

NinjaoftheDarkness: I updated as soon as I could, I only hope it lives up to your hopes. I don't like it, but it's not up to me, it's up to you guys. Oh, and I'm glad you like the plot. .

liar-just-a-liar: Thanks for the long review -.-' Well, here's the update anyway

Koharu Kage: Thanks for the long review -.-' Well, here's the update anyway

Naruto Uzamaki : Thanks for the long review -.-' Well, here's the update anyway

drgn prncss : Hiya! Long time no see. I figured you must have at least on of my books, which one os it? Please tell me it's Shaman King 6? Because if you don't have some one else at that school does. T.T oh, and I'm glad you like the story

bastardson : you'll see what happens, you'll see.

HikaruNoJingoku: Thanks. I'm not sure yet how they'll get together, so I suppose we'll both just have to wait and see.

Hiei-Is-Mine: -.-' I'm not even going to bother

Kayu Silver: 1. That's so sad! Send me those stories and I'll review them to death! My friend too. 2. I can't believe you think I'm talented! Thank you! 3. As for the wet Sasuke, he's already after Naruto .

Rayne-kun: Oh you shut up, who asked you (A/N: For those of you not Rayne-kun, I don't usually answer reviews like this, but Rayne's special. .) There you go Rayne-chan, it's now on paper...or whatever.

GaaraBelongsToMe: Wh00t for you! I can't get my friends into 'smart Naruto' but I say any ten year old who can turn into a woman is gay and brilliant. this is a NaruSasu fic , especially in the beginning.

BTW I NEED A BETA


	3. A New Surprise

Hullo everyone, thanks for reviewing, over 20, wow. So since I'm so happy, let's get right to it shall we?

- - -recap- - -

"_I guess now I'll have a Sasuke who'll listen, even if it's not the real one." Which only left Sasuke to wonder. Who was this new Naruto and why did he sound so sad when he said what had about a Sasuke listing to him? - - -_

When Sasuke woke up the next morning, he woke up with the sun in his eyes, even though he was sure he had seen curtains on the dobe's windows. He didn't remember lying down, or even falling asleep.

He sat up, looking around him as he did so. He was in a small box stuffed with pillows and a little canopy over it, with thick heavy veils that had been pulled to the sides, letting the obnoxious sun in. He climbed out of the little bed, and glanced around him, this must be Narutos room, although it didn't look like a room he would attached to Naruto, the walls were all painted a deep, forest green, the carpet was shag, also green. Narutos bed was just a mattress on the floor, the sheets were black, the comforter dark blue with a large orange fox on it.

Suddenly a fantastic smell reached his now sensitive nose. He suddenly realized how hungry he was, the stupid dobe hadn't even fed him yesterday! His spirits dropped a bit when he remembered who he was talking about, that smell couldn't be coming from anything Naruto had made, it must be from the apartment below them. Regardless, he figured that he should go find Naruto, as he might be able to get something to eat, even if it was ramen.

He padded down the cream hallway, hoping to see a kitchen, which was most likely where the idiot was, to his surprise, the wonderful smell only increased the farther down the hall he went, until he finally found the kitchen, and to his further shock, there was Naruto, with that stupid little hat on, standing over a stove, cooking bacon! 'THE HELL' Sasuke screamed mentally, in reality only making a small confused meow sound. Naruto turned around.

"Hullo there, little one, I thought I sensed you." Naruto said calmly, as if Sasuke hadn't just seen the Apocalypse. "You want some bacon?" he asked, tipping the sizzling bacon on to a cracked plate. "I'm sure you do, since you fell asleep before I could feed you." He placed the plate of hot bacon, that Sasuke reasoned had to taste gross, on the table, then sat down in the chair opposite it, picking up a box of cereal and pouring it into a bowl. "Come on. You're hungry aren't you? Then hop up, I don't bite. Hard." Naruto said, winking.

Had Sasuke been human he would have sputtered. Then he would have called Naruto an idiot, for there was no way that he could get his tiny, fluffy body onto that chair. As if was, he just sat and glared at Naruto until he looked up again.

"What? Do you not like heights? Most cats I get love them, but if you don't, we can eat on the floor." Naruto inquired. Sasuke shook his head, god, Naruto was an idiot.

"Then what is it?" he asked, puzzled. Sasuke went over to the chair, and looked up at the seat, all the way up. "Oh, you can't get up?" Naruto figured, 'Finally!' Sasuke thought, nodding. Naruto grinned. "I see, well that's strange, I've had kittens smaller then you get up there, did you not learn how to jump? Oh well, no matter, the snakes can't jump either. So I have just the thing." Naruto said, standing up. 'Snakes?' Sasuke thought.

Narutos hand came out of apparently nowhere, scooping him up and placing him on the table next to the steaming plate of bacon. "There, that should keep you while I'm not here," He said, moving to his own place across from Sasuke-kitty and pouring himself some milk to go with the cereal. Sasuke stared at his breakfast, wondering if it was safe to it, and apparently under the suspicion that if he stared at it long enough it would give up and tell him. When this didn't happen, he had been looking at it long enough to tell that it _looked_ safe to eat. A waft of that delicious aroma hit his sensitive nose. It _smelled_ safe to eat. He nibbled on a tiny corner. It _tasted_ safe to eat... in fact, it tasted fantastic. He set into his bacon like some sort of crazy person.

When Sasuke had all but licked the plate clean, he looked up to find Naruto watching him with an amused look on his face. "Hungry?" he grinned. Had Sasuke been human, he probably would have flicked him off. As it was he growled. Naruto just grinned again.

"You," he said, pointing at Sasuke with his spoon, and splashing some milk on him, "Sorry, Are kind of strange. Most animals I meet, Kyuu can understand them, therefor so can I, but you, Kyuu can't understand a word of what you're saying, or at least so he says, but the point is, if Kyuu can't understand you, neither can I. You see, I'm in a very strange predicament-" at which Sasuke stared, not having thought that Naruto would even know what predicament meant. "-you can understand me, right?" Naruto asked Sasuke, who realized he was being spoken to, and pulled the question from the back of his head where it had been waiting for him to wake up, and nodded.

"How 'bout now?" Naruto asked, then preceded to make some strange noises, that were sorta like barks, but not a sound that any dog would make. When he stopped Sasuke had decided that Naruto was not safe and that he should probably tell the Hokage that one of her ninja's was mentally unstable, and should be locked away.

"Well," asked Naruto, "could you understand me then." the kitten shook his head. Naruto frowned. "See, that's exactly what I mean, most animals can only understand me if I speak like th-" Naruto stopped talking, which was logical, seeing as the phone was ringing.

"Yeah...uh-huh... I knew it... fine... well, this works out alright then, I need some stuff anyway...ok, I'll be there in 1 minutes, tops." Naruto put down the phone with a click and turned back to Sasuke, who was watching him with his head turned to one side, and looking quite adorable.

"Iruka-sensei called." Naruto said calmly, now putting the now finished bowl of cereal in the sink. "He and Kakashi need dinner, or as he put it, 'I need some dinner, and I'm having company so can you make extra.'" Naruto snorted. While had been saying this, he had gathered up Sasuke's plate as well as other kitchen mess, and tipped it into the sink. That done, he turned back Sasuke.

"You coming?" he asked, Sasuke nodded hesitantly, as he was curious to know why Kakashi was involved in 'company' and how Naruto immediately and was rewarded by a bright grin. Naruto scooped him up in one hand, and said "Hold on, this might tingle a bit." and the next thing Sasuke knew, they was no longer standing in Naruto's kitchen, but standing in a semi-messy living room, facing the couch, on which Iruka and Kakashi were making out. Sasuke felt the sudden urge to pass out in shock. Naruto cleared his troat. Kakashi and Iruka leapt up off each other, Kakashi pulling his mask up as he did so.

"Oh, don't mind me." Naruto grinned wickedly "I'm just the cook, but I think you may have shocked my kitten." Iruka, who was still turning back from the vivid red he had turned when Naruto walked in, sighed.

"Another one, Naruto? Oh well, let me see him, or her."

"Him." Naruto confirmed, handing over the bristling Sasuke, who couldn't exactly say that he liked having people even slightly even hint at questioning his masculinity, even if he was a cute fluffy kitten.

"Awww! He's so cute!" Iruka exclaimed. Kakashi, who had come to stand behind his boyfriend, nodded. "He is rather adorable." he agreed. Sasuke hissed at both of them, what the hell did they know anyway. To his relief, their attention turned back to Naruto.

"'Ruka? Why's Naruto here?" Kakashi asked. Naruto smirked at the pet name. Sasuke stared. Iruka blushed.

"He's here to cook." Iruka relented. Kakashi looked surprised.

"Naruto can cook?" Kakashi was getting confused now, and it didn't help when Naruto and Iruka started laughing, which only doubled his confusion. Sasuke sympathized.

"Hai, Kakashi-sensei. Who do you think cooks all those meals for you and Iruka's 'homemade' romantic dinners." Naruto said, not even fazed at the words 'Kakashi, Iruka, and romantic dinner' in the same sentence. This was not, however, the reaction of anyone else.

"That was you!"

"You knew!"

"Meow!" came the three replies at the same time. Naruto smirked, an expression that looked better on him then one would think.

"Hai, Kakashi-sensei, that was me, what, you thought Iruka-sensei could cook? And please, Iruka-sensei, credit me with some intelligence, I figured it out almost 3 months ago. Now that that's settled, do you two want dinner or not. I'll just cook, I'm going to assume that at least one of you can take it out of the oven when the timer goes off?" he asked, turning back and raising his eyebrow at the two. "By the way, sensei, here's the list, could you get it by later today so that this guy won't starve." Naruto pulled a sheet of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Iruka, who took it in the hand not holding Sasuke. "And hold on to him for me while I cook. And try not to scare him with your make out sessions." With that, Naruto headed off towards the kitchen, leaving Sasuke alone with his two former sensei's, who seemed to be dating. Sasuke prayed they would not start making out again.

"'Ruka?"

"Hm?"

"What's with Naruto?"

"What do you mean?"

"He's not acting...normal. Or rather he is, which isn't normal for him."

"Kakashi, you of all people should know about masks."

"Point taken. Then what was the list?"

"Naruto's grocery list."

"Is there any reason Naruto is not capable of getting his own?"

"Hai, when ever Naruto buys things they come spoiled, the metal is rusted, the milk and meat are bad, the towels have holes in them, that sort of thing. When he was little, he put up with it, he would buy ramen, and even though it was crushed, it was still edible. That's also why he ate so much when ever anyone took him to ramen, he was starving, and that was before he started getting paychecks, so there was only so much he could get for himself."

"Because of..." Kakashi trailed off. Iruka nodded. "He'll pay me for it once he knows how much I spent, he cooks to pay me back for doing all that running around."

"And why can he suddenly not buy ramen?"

"He has missions." Iruka stated and there was a note of finality in his voice.

Ok! Is that good for a chapter? I sorta just want to get it up, so no replys to reviewers, that'll take at least another dy, so ou guys can decide, either I answer the reviews, or I don't, and get it out 1 to 3 days sooner. Vote now! Oh, anyone feel free to e-mail me, or AIM at HeraldMage4evr. Plus anyone who wants me to e-mail them, please leave your e-mail in the review -.-'. Because, as my girlfriend puts it, I'm a lazy ass who doesn't want to look up people's e-mail. By the way, the people who have asked me to e-mail them, I have looked your e-mail and will e-mail you, I've just been busy. Sorry. Oh and thank you to all the people who offered to be my beta. Now I feel awful for asking, 'casue about 10 people offered. T.T. Oh well. See you next chappie.


	4. A New Room

Hullo! I'm sorta in shock, I mean, 80 reviews, in 3 chapter! I have 81 reviews on my other story, and it's 8 chapter long! spazes Anyway, since I'm so far in shock, I have nothing to say in this little section thing, so let's go! By the way dies anyone watch the dub? I do, it's alright for a dub, best dub I've seen, unlike the Shaman King dub (goes off to rant about the name changes and hy the hell did they give a Chinese person a English accent) Anyway, I just got back from watching the episode where Sasuke 'died' saving Naruto, which, like, screams YAOI! So I'm all fired up to write!

- - -Recap- - -

"_Because of..." Kakashi trailed off. Iruka nodded. "He'll pay me for it once he knows how much I spent, he cooks to pay me back for doing all that running around."_

"_And why can he suddenly afford more then ramen?"_

"_He has missions." Iruka stated and there was a note of finality in his voice. _

_- - -_End Recap_- - -_

Sasuke had ended up going with his two former sensei's on their 'shopping for the dobe who for some reason that no one will explain to me can't buy his own food spree' as Sasuke had dubbed it. He was working on figuring out a better name as Kakashi and Iruka shopped, getting everything from steak to vegetables to stuff Sasuke knew was only used in sushi.

When they returned to the house almost an hour later, the house was decorated in a very romantic way, there was one table with a red table cloth, an red candle, and a plate of steaming spaghetti in between the two plates. There was also a whicker basket of rolls, placed next to a bowl of delicately arranged butter. Sasuke figured that nothing after this could shock him. This was as surprising as Naruto could get, right? Please for the love of whoever the hell is listening let this be the last surprising thing about Naruto. Speaking of which... Naruto emerged from the kitchen covered in flour, he looked, if you asked Sasuke, which no one did, very adorable. Of course if you had asked Sasuke, he wouldn't have said this, so he probably wouldn't have gone in to a temporary shock at the thought of him of thinking Naruto as adorable.

Voices brought him out of his shock

"Looks fantastic." Kakashi said conversationally, hiding the fact that he was as shocked as Sasuke. Iruka and Naruto shared a look that did not go unnoticed by the jounin and kitten. (A/N: Am I the only one who loves referring to Sasuke as kitten? Because it's so much fun!)The look said they were not at all fooled by Kakashi's words and knew that he had, once again, underestimated the blond.

"Well, anyway. I hope that you two enjoy your meal, but I have some...stuff to do. Thanks for the stuff sensei, I'll pay you back by tomorrow, k?" Without waiting for an answer, he snatched Sasuke-cat out of Kakashi's hand and the bags out of Iruka's and disappeared. Kakashi blinked.

"Did I know he could do that?" he asked. Iruka sighed.

"Probably not. But then, you never pay attention to anything but your books, do you?"

"That's not true." Kakashi protested. "I pay attention to you." He pulled down his mask and gave Iruka a quick kiss. "Now, I want to see if Naruto's cooking is as good as it looks."

- - - Back to Naruto- - -

"Ok little guy, I'm gonna make you some dinner. And then you can eat it while I work, I'll even let you watch, since you seem much more behaved then the squirrels. You won't knock ink over my most recent papers will you?" Naruto grinned, "Now, let's make you some food."

Naruto put Sasuke down on a counter then did something totally unexpected, he made clone. Sasuke's furry mouth fell open. Who used clones around the house? They used up way to much chakra to just use that casually. Naruto seemed unaware of this simple rule of nature, as he was calmly making rice while his clones ran around making wonderful smelling food. In all the shock, Sasuke failed to notice that Naruto hadn't used hand signs (1).

In about 15 minutes, Naruto's clones vanished and the real Naruto picked Sasuke up in one hand and balanced one steaming plate his head and held the other in his second hand. He walked at a normal pace (which is hard with something on your head) into the hallway. He stopped in front of a...a blank wall. Sasuke blinked 'Tch, typical dobe'. Then, suddenly, a door appeared. Sasuke stared, where the hell had that come from? Why would Naruto, of all people, have a hidden door? Naruto kicked the door open and put Sasuke gently down on a table, where he placed the two plates next to him.

"Well, little one, since I wasn't sure what you wanted to eat, even though most cats are picky eaters and like to shout what they want as loud as they can, but you didn't. So, since I had named you Sasuke, I made you Sasukes favorite dish." Naruto said, putting one of the plates in front of Sasuke, who blinked. How did Naruto know what his favorite food?

"I suppose I should start calling you Sasuke, shouldn't I Although that might get confusing... I'll call you Sasuke-Neko when no one's around, and neko when there are other people, ok?" Naruto asked " Right, well, Sasuke-neko, I have work to do, so you can stay here and watch and eat, or you can wander around the house, just try not to mess anything up, k?" Naruto asked.

After Naruto had finished his meal at a startling pace, he stood up and walked over to key places all over the room. He picked up a few scrolls, a notebook and pen and sat down on the floor, spreading the scrolls round him, and opening the notebook to a clean page. Sasuke watched for about 15 minutes as Naruto would stare at the scroll, the write something down. The only interesting thing that Sasuke could see was that Naruto's kanji was much better then he had though, in fact it was just as good, if not better, then Sasukes.

Sasuke eventually got bored of this and looked around the room. There was a floor to ceiling bookshelf on every wall, some with regular books, some with manga, and some with what Sasuke could swear were forbidden scrolls. He jumped down from the table to the chair, then down to the floor. He padded softly around the room, glancing at all the books. He wouldn't have pegged Naruto as the type who liked to read. But, he also wouldn't have pegged Naruto as the type to cook, or the type to do such a complex jutsu as bushins for every day work. He wasn't sure if that made Naruto lazy or a genius. Or both.

Over in one the corners there was a small nitch in the wall, where pillows were piled up and cushions stacked up high, making a comfy little place to curl up and read. There were small, square holes in the wall, each holding something, in the first one was a pile of notebooks, the second had a different, thicker, spiral bound sketch book, with charcoal pencils and coloured pencils. In a third there was a framed picture of team 7, with Kakashi smiling (I think) at the camera, Naruto grinning and holding up a peace sign, Sakura trying to look sweet and cute and looking as if unsure whether she was to look at the camera or Sasuke, and Sasuke himself had a look on his face that said if the cameraman dared to say 'say cheese' he would tear him in half. The other holes reached all the up the wall. But they were to high up for Sasuke's tiny body to see.

"I bet you're wondering who they are aren't you?" Naruto asked. Sasuke jumped almost a foot in the air. He hadn't even heard him approaching. Naruto picked Sasuke up and sat down before leaning against the pillows, and putting Sasuke in his lap, which was much to soft and warm and comfy for Sasukes state of mind. Naruto picked up the frame and held it out so that Sasuke could see. "That's my old team." he said. 'No shit' Sasuke thought.

"That's my sensei, Kakashi-sensei, you met him earlier, he's a pervert, but he's nice. He's liked Iruka, the other sensei you met today, for a while, but only did something about it three months ago, and Iruka said yes, as I'm sure you guessed." Naruto grinned. Had Sasuke been anyone but an Uchiha (and a cat) he would have blushed at the subtle mention of the snog-fest he had witnessed earlier.

Naruto pointed to Sakura. "That's my old team mate, Sakura, she used to be obnoxious, caring more about Sasuke, the real one, not you, then being a ninja, but when I came back from training with Ero-senin, she was actually a good ninja." Sasuke agreed whole heartedly with this explanation of Sakura, although he was surprised that Naruto had thought of her as annoying, as he had seemed to worship her.

"And that." continued Naruto, pointing to Sasuke. "Is my other old team mate, as well as my best friend. He never talks, never says anything not an insult, at least not to me..." he trailed off, sounding a bit sad, then seemed to push it out of his mind and continued

"He does the dumbest things some times. I don't think he even knows about the hidden camera's that the fangirls have hidden in his house. I sensed them the first time I visited his house but he never seemed to notice. He's lucky I disconnected the ones in his bathroom and bedroom, I really don't think he wants that all over Konoha, I left the other ones though, it's his own fault if he doesn't notice them."

Naruto said all this calmly, apparently unaware of that cat that was having a conniption fit in his lap. "He acts like he doesn't care about anything, but he died for me once. I'm starting to think that-" Naruto broke off as the phone rang from one of the holes in the wall above his head. He gently picked Sasuke up off his lap and put him on a pillow. Before standing up and picking up the phone.

"What? Again? Buy I found a neko and I have to take care of it. Yes, again, it's not my fault animals like me! Can't one of the others do it? Why not? Ok, alright, I'll go!" He put the phone back down.

"Sorry, Sasuke-neko, but Tsunade-baabaa has a mission for me, and for some reason she won't tell me about, none of the other Anbu members can do it. Honestly, it's like she thinks I'm the only competent ninja she has, with all the missions she gives me!" He ranted, snatching a black uniform and mask from a hole above Sasuke head, next to the phone. "Ok, little guy, I'll be back soon, don't touch anything in these holes, I wouldn't suggest trying to touch them if I were you. See you soon, alright." and Naruto vanished, still holding the Anbu outfit.

Sasuke stared at the place where Naruto had just been, his brain still trying to catch up with the thought of Naruto as an Anbu, not even Sasuke was an Anbu yet! All the ninjas of that year who wanted to, had taken the Anbu test, no one had met the requirements. Well, apparently someone had. Apparently Naruto had.

Well, how's that! I think I could have done better. Oh, and I've decided to play a game, because I have no life. I'm going to take quotes from things and put them in my stories, usually the characters (and probably Naruto the most) will say the quotes. The quote from this one is from a play, anyone who can name the play and what line it was will get... a sneak peak of the next chapter! This one's really hard.

Oh, and the thing with Naruto not using jutsus, in my fic, that's sorta like in Harry Potter, with the silent spells, it's very complex and hard to do as well as making the jutsu's stronger. Not many people even know about this, much less can do it. .

Reviews if you want, hell, flame if you want, although I don't see the point, it's not my fault it you hate a fic enough to read all of it. lol, because that's what a flame is, someone not liking a story, then blaming the author because they didn't stop reading. It's like, it you don't like the story, then, duh, stop reading it. I mean, there are stories I don't like after I start reading it, so I stop. And there are pairing that just thinking about it makes me gag, but I'm not going to read a story that has that pairing, then blame the author because I read a fic I hate. (Takes deep breath) Ahem, sorry about that. See you next chapter!


	5. A New Outfit

Hullo all! Thank you for you wonderful reviews! And I apologize, again, for the short chapter, so I've decided, that I will either do one short chapter per week or one long chapter every two weeks, or at least I'll try, the only reason I get as much done as I do is because I get up at 5 in the morning to type out the story for you guys, so feel grateful, grateful dammit!

Ahem, anyway, the reason I'm starting so soon you ask? Well, I've been reading a bunch of Naruto fics, and in every single one, Naruto was an idiot! I don't get it, he made up his own jutsu at the age of ten! Not even Shikamaru can claim that... on second thought, he probably could, but he's to lazy... fine then, not even Itachi has done that!

And what's with all this talk about Naruto being straight? What kind of straight person wants to turn into a girl? It's just an excuse to cross dress, it really is. And he could beat a jounin, that whats-his-name-guy, in the first book. AND he mastered the jutsu that had taken the hero of the village four freaking years to master, yeah, it took Naruto a week. So yeah! Beat that you thinking-Naruto-is-dumb-losers!

So yeah, here's the story. I've decided that my recap isn't all that helpful, it just tells you the last sentence, which isn't all that helpful, because what if the last sentence is I like cheese or something stupid like that, plus with the way it is, I have to go back and find the last chapter, then hit copy then paste and all that obnoying jazz. So, presenting the NEW AND IMPROVED recap:

- - - Recap- - -

In the last chapter, Sasuke finds out that Naruto is an Anbu and then Naruto leaves Sasuke in his house...alone...

- - -End Recap- - -

- - - Start Fic- - -

Sasuke had spent the last fifteen minutes getting over his 'Naruto is an Anbu' induced shock. He had spent the five minutes after that pondering what else he didn't know about Naruto. He spent the last few seconds deciding that he was going to find out. He got to his furry little feet and got off the pillow mountain, with proved more difficult then one would think, seeing as how the pillows kept sinking beneath him and trying to pull him into their fluffy softness forever. When he had freed himself from one particularly persistent fox shaped pillow, he wandered around the large room, inspecting the bookshelves, wondering what kind of books Naruto read.

All of the books surprised him, what he had expected were books with lame titles like 'So You Want To Be Hokage' or 'How to Make Ramen In Three Seconds'. What he found were books with titles like 'History Of Konoha' and 'The Truth Beyond Truths'. When he was done examining these books, he moved on to another shelf, filled, not with books but scrolls. These were higher up, so Sasuke couldn't make out the titles, but he knew a forbidden scroll, or seven, when he saw them.

He continued on. He wandered back to the evil pillow mountain of doom, as he had so creatively dubbed it. What was here, of all places that Naruto hadn't wanted him to see? He examined the hole nearest him. Nothing. Just the picture of team 7. Above that was the sketch book, and farther above that the phone, next to where Naruto had kept his Anbu uniform. Sasuke wondered what Naruto had in that sketch book, or in on the cubby next to it the notebooks next to it. He wondered if the single notebook, separate from the others, was a diary.

He also wanted to know what was in the cubbies to far above his head to see. Forgetting Narutos warning not to touch, he stuck his face into the hole with the sketch book, and ...

...promptly got his nose shocked. He jumped back with a yelp. Actually it was more of a squeal, but he was an avenger, and even in cat forms, avengers didn't squeal. Ever. So it was a yelp, and that was final. He eyed the sketch book warily, sure he must have imagined that, no way could the dobe have done a defensive jutsu around this sketch book, why would he? How would he? Naruto could barely even win a fight against Sakura! (A/N: Yeah, I know thats not really true, but you know Sasuke, he always underestimates people)

Sasuke was not a very fast leaner, or he was just stupid. Either way, he, for some reason didn't believe the pain in his nose and stuck out a paw, into the hole with the sketch book. He got shocked. He squeal- ahem, yelped. Figuring that only the sketch book could be protected, after all, these jutsus took a huge amount of chakra, chakra that Naruto didn't have. Especially not on a mission, so only this one hole could be protected. He tried to stick his tail into another hole. It get shocked. Sasuke was starting to think that this wasn't such a brilliant idea after all.

He glared at the holes. Why was Naruto protecting these things? These useless, meaningless things, and not the forbidden scrolls? 'Whatever' Sasuke thought 'If that idiot isn't smart enough to protect the valuables, its his problem' and with that, he strutted out of the hidden room, or at least he tried to, it was kinda hard with his paw singed. The door materialized into place behind him.

Time for some snooping in Naruto's room.

He padded along the cream hall. He hadn't had time to explore Naruto's room the last time he had been at there, he had been to busy being hungry. He wandered into the room, the door had been left open. He was once again shocked at the decoration of the room. The walls were all a dark green, the shag green carpet was soft under his paws. The bed was just a mattress on the floor. But that wasn't everything. There was what looked like a large oak tree climbing up the side of the wall, the hole in lined with shelves, the higher up hole lined with pillows.

On the other side of the wall there was a weeping willow, it's branches hiding something from view. He padded over there, stepping between the soft branches. Sasuke felt a strange feeling, similar to that of the feeling when Naruto had transported them. He ignored it in the light of what he saw. His mouth dropped open. It looked like a forest glade. There was a shallow stream running across a small corner, ending in a deeper pool, with a waterfall pouring water into the pool, feeding the small river. The carpet beneath his paws was now soft, lush grass. There were trees there to! Higher then where the ceiling would be. He could even see a sapphire sky through the tree tops.

It was then that Sasuke came to the only logical reason that there could be. He was dreaming. That was it. It was all a figment of his imagination. He didn't mind, he'd had much worse dreams. In fact he was interested in what would happen in this dream. Knowing that dream-Naruto would return soon, he left the magical clearing and wandered back to Naruto's room. Deciding to look around at this room, he wandered over to the oak tree that doubled as a book shelf. The books up there shocked him. He had many of the same books at home. Books like Shaman King, Yu Yu Hakusho, Hikaru No Go, One Piece and Full Metal Alchemist. Yup, definitely a dream. An interesting dream, true, but still a dream.

Might as well live it out' he thought 'See what other crazy things my subconscious come up with. Like... Itachi being a Konoha spy, or... Naruto in a mini dress.' Sasuke did his best to snort at this thought, not even wondering why that thought had popped into his head, or why it didn't bother him. He didn't however, get to complete the snort, as he was 1) a cat and 2) a cat with a singed nose.

"Sasuke! I'm home!" came a voice from where the front door followed by the sound of the door closing. Sasuke raced out to the hall, not wanting to be caught snooping. Naruto saw him and picked him up and swung him around. "That was awesome! I should have thought of naming one of my pets Sasuke along time ago!" Naruto exclaimed, putting Sasuke carefully down on a chair (he had brought him into the living room).

It was then that Sasuke realized what Naruto was wearing. He was wearing a very very short dress, red with white fur lining the bottom and the sleeves that came down to the middle of his arm. He was also wearing a Santa hat, and Sasuke noticed with the small part of his mind that was not taken up with what nice legs Naruto had, that Naruto was wearing red nail polish.

That same part was pondering if cats could get nosebleeds.

"Oh, heh heh. I bet you're wondering why I'm wearing this, aren't you?" Naruto asked, a bit sheepishly, sheepishly! as if parading around in front of his rival in the shortest thing that Sasuke had ever seen (in fact, he was starting to doubt it could be logically be called a dress, more like a scrap of fabric) was a perfectly normal, everyday occurrence. Although, for Naruto, it might be. And he didn't know that it was his rival he was parading half naked in front of. Sasuke hadn't, of course, been wondering anything of the sort. He had been wondering if it was legal to look that, ahem, fuckable.

" Well, the reason I'm dressed like this is that stupid Tsunade-baachan thought that my mission tonight was gathering information from members of Sound, so I get all 'dolled up' as she put it, in my Sexy No Jutsu form and off I go. And since it's so close to Christmas, this is what I get to wear." ­Naruto grinned at Sasuke, before grabbing the end of the 'dress' and starting to pull it over his head. Sasuke was bit disappointed before he realized that if Naruto wearing the dress, he wouldn't be wearing anything, well, except the underwear. Sasuke sat back and watched the show. He was disappointed, to say the least, when Naruto began to head towards the bathroom, still trying to get the scrap of fabric over his head. The door closed behind him with a click. Sasuke shook his head, repeatedly. He was trying to clear his head. It wasn't working.

That image of Naruto was going to haunt his dreams for a long long time. He couldn't for the life of him, figure out why that thought didn't bother him at all.

- - - Later- - -

Naruto was now wearing black lounge pants, a long t-shirt and that weird little hat of his. He wandered almost lazily over to Sasuke.

"Hey, Sasuke-kitty, it's dinner time. What do you want to eat?" he cocked his head as if listening. Meh, you can't talk, well, Kyu says he's in the mood for mice, but I don't really feel like catching any right now, you know? So, sushi it is! I feel like some shrimp tempura, you want some? ­Sasuke nodded his head, watching as Naruto grinned before making his clones and picking Sasuke up to put him in the table.

This time Naruto did not help the clones, he sat down at the table next to Sasuke, then put his feet on the table ad leaned back in his chair, putting his hands behind his head and looking very comfy. Sasuke felt the urge to roll his eyes.

"Hey, what happened to your nose?" Naruto asked, leaning closer to get a better look, which resulted in him being almost nose to nose with Sasuke. Sasuke could feel Narutos breath ruffling the soft fur around his nose. He felt his skin heat up under his fur ad realized that had he been in his human form, he would have been blushing. He wondered why, as he had come nose to nose (and mouth to mouth) with Naruto before. Needless to say, this did not make his skin cool down. Suddenly Naruto snickered, leaning back in his chair again.

"Heh, curiosity killed the cat, ne?" he said, tapping Sasuke's singed nose gently. To his surprise, Sasuke felt a cool, soothing sensation flow from where Naruto's finger was. He blinked. Was Naruto…healing him? What? Could he do that. Apparently he could, Sasuke realized as Naruto moved his hand down to Sasuke's paw and the other to his tail, and the cool feeling spread over there to.

"I did warn you, didn't I? You shouldn't touch the things in there. Only I can get in there without getting singed. I'd let animals see, but… you never know who else can talk to animals. The Inuzuka family for one, like I want Kiba to know what's in there." Naruto grinned. One of the clones put a shrimp roll in front of Sasuke and one in front of Naruto. "Dig in." Naruto said, making good on his own word. Sasuke began to nibble on his own food.

"I can't wait to tomorrow." Naruto exclaimed randomly. "I'll finally have time to get some training done, then I get to go on my favorite kind of mission!" Sasuke tilted his head to he side to convey his confusion. "I get to meet with Konoha's spy in the Atsuki!" he explained proudly, as if this wasn't a revelation at Sasuke at all.

Sasuke was a high-ranking jounin, he should have been informed of a spy in the Atsuki! How was it that Naruto knew and not him. Sasuke got the impression that not even every Anbu knew about it. He just stared at Naruto, his food forgotten. Naruto grinned.

"Curious as a cat. aren't you? You seem more…intelligent then some of the other a animals I've taken care of…more aware. You seem to understand what I say, more then the others, they understood the words, yes, but they didn't understand things like the Atsuki and spy. I feel like, I dunno, you're almost human. Alright, I'll tell you, but I won't use any names, like I said, you never know who can talk to animals." he suddenly paused, then turned his head as if listening. "Yeah, yeah I know, but.. He reminds me a bit of Sasuke, the real one." he blushed faintly. "I feel like I can trust him. I know very well what happened!" Now his tone was one of anger. "Well, like I said, I'm not going to tell this guy any names, keep your fuzzy nose out of my business if you won't even listen to the whole conversation. Stupid old fox." the last bit sounded like an annoyed endearment.

"Anyway, Sasuke-neko." he said, turning back to Sasuke. "The tale of the Atsuki spy for Konoha. We'll call them…Chi, yeah, Kyuu, thats good. Chi. Man I'd love to see his face… anyway, this guy, Chi, was framed by Orochimaru for…well I can't tell you what he was framed for, I might as well tell you his name. Well, anyway, it was horrible. That's one of the downsides of henge. So anyway, Chi." a snicker "Was framed, but at the time he was supposed to have been doing this crime, he was actually with the Hokage. But he knew that the village needed a spy in the Atsuki, and knew that soon, other villages would learn of 'his' crime if the truth was nor learned, so he could pretend to have deliberately done the crime and joined the Atsuki."

"But…even though he is now a key member of the Atsuki, there are still things that he had left behind that…make it harder for him to stay in this unique position. Like for example, there is one person, who's name I also can't tell you, because that would give it away to, so lets call him Ke." he giggled again. "Not funny Kyuu!" he was bright red now. "I will not call this person Uke, stupid inconsiderate no good lousy fox. Well, this Ke guy still thinks that Chi did this horrible crime and so seeks to kill him, and to maintain his position in the Atsuki, Chi has to pretend to scorn Ke and always has to fight him. One day, Ke will get stronger, and…well, Chi will know the worst possible kind of death." Naruto trailed off his voice soft.

"Anyway!" he said, brightening suddenly. To suddenly to be real. "I'm exhausted, how 'bout you? Plus, um, Chi, is coming here tomorrow, so yeah! It'll be fun. So, I better head to bed, and you to!"

- - - -To Be Continued- - - -

Cookies to anyone who can guess who 'Chi' and 'Ke' are! And about this, should Naruto act stupid or normal? You vote to decide! Oh, and for anyone who wants um, well crap, I forgot what I was going to say, I was watching Kyo Kara Maoh. Oh, right! Anyone who wants, um, ur, never mind. …..oh well, whatever. Damn anime. I got Kyo Kara Maoh for Christmas, and it's one of the best things I've ever seen! My god, can you say bishis in almost-cannon-yaoi much! Also, next chapter might be in Naruto's POV, or both, but it's a very important chapter… so yeah, prolly both. It's gonna be fun! All who review will get… A preview of next chapter. And not the lame reviews like 'That was great, update soon!', I'm talking real reviews here people!

Oh, and I seem to be getting a hell of a lot of reviews that say 'write more or I'll kill you' or 'I'll kill myself' as much as I love reviews, can we keep the morbid ones to a minimum? Please? I am flattered, really, but…yeah…


	6. A New Guest

Hullo all! Guess what! I'm in a car, and I will be from now (5:00PM till 9:00PM tonight) then from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM tomorrow, well, I bet you want to know why, well, what happened is we have to get this boat from Connecticut, which is really close to NYC so we went to NYC for two days then we head out to get the boat. Then we spend seven hours fixing the lights on the trailer. Then we're finally on the road and I've finished all the fan fiction I had gotten, and it's to dark to play Fire Emblem, so meh. Well, your in luck, you'll prolly get about five chapters. Lucky you. PS Wicked is Awesome with a capital A! We saw it this weekend.

And thank you for all the great, fantastic, wonderful, loving, spiffy, wicked, nifty, super reviews I got! I hope I live up to your hopes with this new chapter! Oh and everyone, every single person guessed right. So cookies for everyone! hands out special, homemade cookies with a picture of Sasuke and Naruto making out, then more with Sasuke with Neko ears and tail, and a third with Naruto in his Christmas dress The only people who didn't guess were the people who said 'Oh, it was great update soon.'

Oh, and a lot of you said that I was making Sasuke to stupid, well, he's not being stupid, just underestimating Naruto, a lot. Plus, how would you react to finding out that someone that you had known as an idiot for your whole life turned out to be just as smart and stronger then you?

Anyway! To the fic!

By the way, Kyuubi comes in this chapter so therefore… I shall give you…a key! (dun dun duun)

**Bold is Kyuubi talking**

_**Bold and italic is Naruto talking to Kyuubi in his head, **_

_And italic is Naruto thinking (wow, there's a sentence you don't hear very often. Lol)_

- - - Recap- - -

Naruto wears a mini-dress and tells Sasuke about a spy for Konoha who works in the Akatsuki will be coming over that afternoon

- - - End Recap- - -

- - -Naruto's POV (finally)- - -

Naruto's mental clock woke him at 5 o'clock. No one knew that he woke up early. He thought that it would fit more with his image if he was seen as a late-riser, especially as Sasuke was also a natural riser. So, apparently, was his cat. Well, at least he hoped that it was, as he was about to wake it up.

"Good morning Sasuke!" he said, getting up from his bed and stretching. The cat seemed to be one of those animals that came awake all at once, with no passing time from sleeping to waking. It also seemed to be used to waking up early, as it did not glare at him (much, but he was starting to think that a glare was it's default setting) and rose from the bed with feline grace.

Naruto felt as though the cat was watching him as he began to do his normal morning stretches. When he was done with that he walked over to his closet. It was over in a corner where most people wouldn't see it unless they were looking for it. This wasn't on purpose, it was simply the way his room was set up.

He opened up the cabinet, grimacing when he saw all that blinding orange. It wasn't his fault, the store owners had claimed that they were mysteriously out of his size and that all they had that would fit him was this awful orange coat. His suspicion was that they had come up with the brightest, ugliest, worst thing for a stealth ninja to wear so that they enemy would be more likely to see and therefore kill him. He was, in a twisted way, grateful, for because of this, his stealth was better then anyone in the villages.

Anyway, when he was around the house he could simply wear a pair of black pants that Iruka had gotten him. He wore the orange outfit so as to not alert the villagers of this plan, for fear that they would start to give Iruka the same rotten treatment that they gave him.

He sighed, he would just keep these pajama's on during breakfast and training, so that he wouldn't have to get changed again for his guest. He went back to the center of his room and picked up the little ball of fuzz that he had decided to name Sasuke. He wondered what Sasuke would say if he found out that he had named something cute and fluffy after him.

'**He'd probably go into his rant about how he's an avenger and how could you possibly associate him with anything that cute.' **Kyuubi said from the back of his mind. Naruto snorted. "Very true." he replied aloud. Sasuke-neko looked at him, probably wondering who he was talking to. He grinned down at the little cat.

"I was just wondering what the real Sasuke would say if he knew that I had named an adorable little kitten after him, and Kyuu said that he would probably go into his avenger rant and how could I possibly associate him with anything that cute?" he giggled again. The cat glared at him He got the distinct impression that if the cat were human, it's glare would rival Sasuke's. (A/N: .)

Naruto just grinned. "I knew I picked your name right. Come on, I have to train. Do you want me to make you something or do you want to catch your own?" The cat gave him a look that said, very clearly, 'catch my own? Are you nuts!' and Naruto grinned. "Ok, bacon it is." and suddenly there were two Naruto's. The one not holding Sasuke went to the kitchen, the real Naruto headed to the willow tree in the corner.

He noticed that Sasuke was staring after his clone with his mouth hanging open. "Wachya lookin at?" he asked, stopping in front of the branches.

'**I think he wants to know why you don't use hand symbols. See what happens when you show off, you confuse a, um, poor little animal.' **put in Kyuubi helpfully.

'**_You know something, don't you?' _**Naruto thought back.

'**Who, me? Anyway, tell the nice kitty about your hand signs or lack there of' **Kyuubi replied, his voice a mock parody of innocence.

"Hey, Sasuke, let's leave the bugs for the frogs that come to visit and close our mouths, ne?" Naruto grinned. "Yeah, about the lack of hand signs, it's just a trick I picked up from Kyuu, it took me almost a year to master it, but it amplifies my chakra, and makes it impossible to replicate my jutsu's with Sharingan or other such bloodlines.

"It also helps the one of my bloodlines, well, let's just say it's not one of the ones that needs handsigns so that knowing how to do handless jutsu's just helped me master this bloodline. I got the idea from Haku, he's a guy I… knew… and asked Kyuu if such a thing is possible, and the old fox said yes and spent the better part of six months teaching me and the rest of my time perfecting it. Anyway I have to train. So, lets go."

He walked through the willow branches, feeling the familiar tingling feeling of the permanent transportation jutsu that he had placed in his room. He stepped into his glade, the place that he had marked as his own, hidden deep in the forest, where no one else dared to go. The forest knew him here, every animal, every tree and plant in this forest, especially this glade, his glade, knew him. And he knew them as well as he anything.

"Alright Kyuu, you want to spar?" He asked aloud, putting Sasuke down on a tree stump near the stream. He felt Kyuu nod from the back of his head. Naruto grinned in anticipation, it had been to long since he'd had someone worth sparring with. He closed his eyes, picturing each symbol for the proper jutsu in his head. In a few minutes, as it was a long and complex jutsu, Kyuu was standing in his favorite human form. As he was a demon he could shift into any form he choose, but his favorite form was that of a young man with long red hair, his golden eyes slanted and his pupils slit like a cat's. He had the same whiskers on his face as Naruto, although they were darker. He wore black pants and a rust red shirt with dark brown, thigh high boots.

Kyuubi grinned at Naruto, revealing sharp teeth. He also had pointed red ears on top of his head. Naruto grinned back. With seemingly no warning they lunged at each other, neither of them landing a blow (A/N: I suck at fight scenes so, yeah, sorry if this sucks). Neither of them paid attention to Sasuke, who was staring a the new comer in shock.

Kyuubi struck out at Naruto, who flipped over his outstretched arm and landing behind him, kicking out towards his head. Unnoticed by the two, the clone that Naruto had made earlier slipped into the valley and placed a plate of food in front of the watching cat, then disappeared into a puff of smoke. Sasuke turned his attention back to the fight. He couldn't see them.

A sudden rustle from above him made him look up. The two of them were fighting in the trees above his head. Kyuubi aimed a kick at Naruto's head, who swung down so he was hanging upside down from the branch. Using what must have needed incredible strength, he pulled himself up, using only his stomach muscles, to grab Kyuubi's feet. He pulled him off the branch, now dangling upside down while holding Kyuubi by his feet. Naruto dropped from the branch suddenly, flipping over in midair so that he landed on his feet, while holding Kyuu upside down by his ankle, with his long hair brushing the ground.

"Alright, you win. Now put me down, you're getting my hair dirty."

"Aw, is poor wittle Kyuubi-chan scared of a wittle bit of dirt." Naruto joked. Sasuke stared. 'Wait, Kyuubi? As in the Evil Demon Fox that was killed about 16 years ago? Is that the 'Kyuu' that Naruto has been talking about? HOW THE HELL COULD HE REFER TO AN EVIL CREATURE BY SUCH AN ENDERING NICKNAME! Although when he thought about it, it did make sense, in a twisted way. He would have to ask Naruto about it when he was human again.

Speaking of Naruto, he turned back to the blond, who seemed to be contemplating the best way to put Kyuu be down. Coming to a conclusion, he tossed him into the air as easily as though he were a rag doll. Kyuubi landed on his feet next to Naruto.

"There, I spared you 'pwesoius hair from the evil dirt'" Naruto laughed.

"Shut up you. Come on, I, um, we have to get ready for It-" his golden eyes flickered to Sasuke "your guest."

"Yeah, I suppose. We've been at this for a while. He'll be here soon." Naruto shrugged, going over to pick up the stunned Sasuke and the plate next to him. "Hey, Kyuu, did, I dunno, did you drop a log on my cat or something, because he's kinda, um, deadish."

"Oh, I dunno Naruto, he may just be shocked by your mad skills." Kyuubi joked.

"Of course, that must be it." he replied in the same manner. "But really, I'm worried, he's the first animal that I actually want to keep."

"Well if you're so worried why don't you heal him, dobe." Without warning, Naruto sprang to his feet, his grasp on Sasuke tightening.

"Don't call me that!" he yelled. "Only Sasuke can call me that, you know that!" Kyuubi snickered.

"Well, as you seem to like it so much when he calls you that, I didn't think that you'd mind."

"That's a lie and you know it. You know very well why I only let Sasuke call me that and that I'd mind" Sasuke glanced up. Naruto's face was a bright red, although whether it was from anger or something else he wasn't sure. He turned back to Kyuubi as the deamon started to speak.

"Yeah, I know why." he said. Sasuke blinked. Had the kitsune just winked at him?

6666666

_Knock knock knock._

"Coming!" Naruto yelled. He pulled open the door, revealing a tall man with short brown hair and brown eyes. "Hey! Long time no see, ne?" he grinned. "Come on in." The man walked into the living room, plopping down onto a couch as if he had been here many times before. There was a hissing noise and he quickly stood back up.

Naruto laughed. "That's just my cat." he said. The cat glared at the stranger, who tactfully moved somewhere else. "So my jutsu worked, I can see, I was worried it wouldn't work on everyone."

The man just nodded. "It worked fine." he looked around. "Where's Kyuubi?" he asked. Naruto laughed.

"He's just getting out of the shower. We were training."

"Oh? Which one of you won this time?"

"Me, but it was close."

"I see so how's Sasuke?" Itachi asked. Sasuke's ears viably perked, why would this stranger be asking about him?

"Ah, that's the you we all know and love. I was wondering, normally you start demanding information the second you walk into the door. And why would I have information on that bastard anyway." Naruto asked. The guest looked annoyed.

"Nice try Naruto, aren't you as bad as those creepy fangirls of his?" The stranger raised an eyebrow. Naruto blushed.

"I am not!" He yelled, a bit to loud, a bit to fast.

"Yeah, and how much did you spend on his birthday present this year?" he asked skeptically. Naruto flushed darker. Sasuke blinked. He hadn't gotten a preset from Naruto.

"mhnd." he mumbled. The guest grinned.

"Sorry, couldn't catch that."

"About 2 missions." he said, a bit louder. The person whistled.

"A-class?" Naruto nodded. The man tutted "Did you even give it to him this time?"

"No." Naruto said sheepishly. The man looked reproachful.

"Naruto! You said almost two Christmas's ago that you would actually give him something this year. And it's been two years and six months! Did you give him his Christmas present? Or Valentines Day? Or Halloween! Although why anyone would give people a Halloween present is beyond me. I'd say that you like giving him stuff, except, wait, you don't!"

"Ok fine, fine! I'll tell you dammit. He's fine. He's getting stronger. He'd be able to spar with Kyuu and tie soon, but…Anyway! He's still cold and uncaring. He's a jounin now. I hardly ever see him anymore. He doesn't have time for a loser like me, apparently." Naruto's voice was sad. The stranger looked sympathetic.

"I know that this won't help, but I think that you should let him see, well, you, not this moron you pretend to be."

"Oh yeah, like I can just go up to him and say 'Hey Sasuke, guess what, I'm not really as stupid as I act, I really have incredible chakra control, have made up fifty of my own jutsus and can rival and sometimes beat Jiraiya in a fight? Oh, and my dad, the Fourth Hokage, sealed Kyuubi in my stomach, but don't worry, he's really just a big fluff ball with a large temper!' Yeah, that'd go real well." Sasuke was staring at Naruto, his mouth open in shock. 'Beat Jiraiya, fifty jutsus, Kyuubi in my stomach, dad, ball of fluff…' kept circling around in his head, he was trying to connect the things so that they made sense.

"Well, it's always worth a shot." The stranger said. Naruto snorted. "Hey, um Naruto, I think your cat died." he said, glancing towards the animal sitting on the couch. Naruto looked over at him to.

"Oh, yeah, he tends to do that. He'll snap out of it soon." Naruto shrugged, picking up the cat and stroking it.

"What'd you name him?" he asked. Naruto blushed a bit.

"…Sasuke…" he mumbled. The stranger stared at him for a moment, before bursting into crazy laughter.

"Shut up! He's a lot like Sasuke! He even has the Uchiha glare down!" Naruto yelled.

"Oh my gosh!" Came a sarcastic voice from the hall. "Is the almighty Uchiha doing something as human as, gasp, laughing." Kyuubi emerged, wearing a clean outfit similar to his other one, except his red shirt had golden trim around the hems. His red hair was still damp and held the slight curls of wet hair. "And why are you still wearing that henge, you know that this whole place is sound proof and no one can spy through the windows." He said, sitting down next to Itachi.

"No, last time I visited you two were still working on the jutsu for that. So you finished." he said. When the two nodded, he did a few jutsu's and in his place was Uchiha Itachi. Suddenly Naruto's cat went nuts. He sprang to his feet and lunged at Itachi, before he was caught in midair by Naruto.

"Sorry, I don't know what's wrong with him, he's normally a bit more, well, sane." Naruto said apologetically. Itachi looked down at the cat and his now red eyes widened.

"Naruto." he said, his voice emotionless "Where did you get this cat?"

"Oh, I found him in the forest. He was trying to hide but I could smell him anyway. He's strange. Not a normal cat."

"No, he's not." Itachi agreed, his eyes locked with the cats. He seemed to shake himself, he seemed torn between being embarrassed about the concern he had shown about Sasuke in front of him, and laughter from what he had unknowingly made Naruto admit. The next few minutes were awkward, before Naruto stood up, saying.

"I have to go take a shower, you two keep each other company, ne?" He winked at Kyuubi, who decided to ignore him. He went around the hall, where he turned to Sasuke.

"Look, you. I told you about Itachi-kun, last night. He's a spy for in the Akatsuki, for Konoha. Jeez, you really are like Sasuke. Now you go in and listen to what they're talking about. You'll see he's a great guy. But keep hidden. Kyuu and Itachi-kun are the kind of paranoid people to not say anything in front of anyone. Even a neko." Naruto said, putting Sasuke down on the ground. "I'll be taking a shower." Naruto grinned at Sasuke before wandering off towards he bathroom.

Sasuke blinked. Naruto was weird. And crazy. Was that story he had told him last night about Itachi…wait. That would make him Ke! That moron! He suddenly blushed, remembering that the voice in Naruto's head, which he now knew was Kyuubi, who apparently wasn't an evil blood-lusting being after all. Apparently he was a normal guy that happened to live in a sixteen year old boy, and had a twisted and slightly perverted sense of humor. And according to Naruto, Itachi had been framed for the murder of his family. He found this to be more believable then he would have thought. He had never been able to truly believe it. And it had been his quest for revenge that had led him to Orochimaru in the first place. It would have been a very clever plan on Orochimaru's part. Kill off the strongest ninja family except two, frame one for the murder, and have the other one come to him for power and kill the framed one and he would have successfully gained a powerful ally while defeating one of his greatest threat.

He padded down the hall to where they had left Kyuubi and Itachi, the last thing he would have thought he'd ever do, right up there with fall in love with Naruto. He stopped. Where had that come from? He ignored it, passing it off as one of the strange things that his subconscious came up with.

He heard slightly raised voices coming from the room. He recognized his brothers voice.

"-when you know how much he hates me!"

"I thought it would be good for the kid."

"Which one?"

"Your brother. Naruto told him last night that a spy from the Akatsuki was coming over. He just didn't tell him that it was you. He didn't think that he would need to."

"You mean you haven't told him either? What is wrong with you? You do know that Naruto-kun is going to _kill_ you if he finds out."

"Yeah, I know, but for now, I get to mess with Sasuke's mind."

"What are you going to do to my kid brother? I swear if you-"

"Relax Uchiha, I just think it's time he learned the truth. About Naruto, and about you."

"Truth! Who the hell needs truth!"

"You know that this will help him and Naruto."

"Yeah, you're right."

"Well, that was a sudden change of mind."

"Shut up."

"So you'll help me?"

"Yeah, alright. I'll help.

"Alright. We have to make Sasuke realize the truth, and see how much of the truth we can get Naruto to inadvertently admit."

"Ok, then I'm going to assume I'm staying for more then just today?"

"Hell yeah! Now let's get the guest room ready."

Sasuke heard the sounds of the sounds of two people getting up and quickly left so as to not been seen by the two he had just been spying on. He was starting to think that he knew nothing about the world he had so comfortably been living in. Nothing at all.

6666666

"So." Itachi said to Kyuubi in a whisper. "Do you think he'll ever figure out that we knew he was listening."

"Doubtful, you Uchiha's tend to think inside the box."

"Hey!"

"You seem to have gotten over the shock of your brother being a cat pretty fast."

"I'm an Uchiha, it comes with the name. Plus, I do think that this will be very good, for both of them."

- - - To Be Continued- - -

So what do you think? Tell me, please, the more reviews, the sooner I update, just so you know. Oh, and I'm thinking about putting ItachixKyuubi in as a side pairing, thoughts?

oh, and HAPPY NEW YEAR! IT'S 2006 HERE! AND THERE WASN'T EVEN A COUNTDOWN! beause I think my parents died or something they left for somewhere about five hours ago!


	7. A New Sight

Oh my god! I have over 200 reviews spaz spaz spaz Well, since I'm so thrilled, you guys are spared my useless babble. Oh, and I have a beta! Give it up for Kai19! Who came up with a lot of the ideas for the last chapter! Wh00t! And this chapter. So yeah, yay for betas!

- - -Recap- - -

Itachi and Kyuubi know that Sasuke is a cat. Sasuke knows that the know. They have plans. We don't know what they are

- - -End Recap- - -

"Sasuke, we need to talk." Itachi said, one of the few things he had ever thought he would ever say to a little ball of fluff. Especially when said little ball of fluff was his brother. He shrugged. He would have to tell Sasuke the truth, from his own mouth, not whatever Naruto had told him. Sasuke nodded. Itachi picked Sasuke up and carried him to the living room. Kyuubi was sitting on the couch.

"Alright, are you two ready for your little heart to heart?" Kyuubi asked. He received two Uchiha glares. "Sheesh, I'm just trying to help. Do you want me to translate for Sasuke-kun or not?" Itachi looked annoyed.

"Yeah yeah, just translate you dumb fox." Itachi said,

"_Translate?" _Sasuke meowed. Kyuubi grinned

"Yeah kid. I'm hear to translate for you two Ah, all the Uchiha's together again."

"_I thought that you said you couldn't understand me._"

"I lied, duh, fox." Kyuubi said, as if being a fox was the only explanation needed to explain why he lied.

"What, what did he say?" Itachi demanded.

"Oh, I told Naruto I couldn't understand what his cat was saying, Sasuke-kun wanted to know why I could understand him."

"Ah."

"_I'm right here and can hear every word you're saying, so stop talking about me like I'm not here._" Sasuke meowed. Kyuubi grinned and translated for Itachi.

"Jeez Itachi, he's like a mini you." They both turned their infomous Uchiha Glares on him. "See what I mean! You two even _glare_ the same!" he exclaimed. The two Uchihas glanced at each other, then turned away. Kyuubi grinned again.

"Hey, you two came here to talk, ne? So talk, don't mind me. I will, of course, be here listening to every word you say, but don't worry, only Naruto will hear what was said here." The two glared at him again, He raised his hands in a gesture of peace. "I kid, I kid, like I would let him hear this, that would ruin my…" He glanced at Sasuke. "Never mind." he said, giving an innocent grin. "Anyway, nothing you say here will leave this room. I promise."

"Yeah, like that means anything." Itachi muttered under his breath. Kyuubi just grinned. "Anyway, Sasuke. I'm sure you heard a simple version of what happened from Naruto-kun." Sasuke nodded. "So you know the basics. But I'm sure you want detail." Sasuke nodded again.

"Well, what happened, I was sent on a two month long mission. But I finished early and arrived home after just a month. When I was giving the Hokage my mission report, we heard a terrible commotion in the streets. We heard lots of screaming and yelling. I only caught a few words. "Uchiha" "murdered." and my own name. I was terrified. I wanted to know what was going on, I tried to leave the Hokages office, but the Hokage suspected that something more then the obvious might be going on. He told me to hide in the shadows of the office. I couldn't exactly refuse the Hokage, so I did. A few minutes later, a man came in, saying that the entire Uchiha clan had been killed, except Uchiha Sasuke. When the Hokage asked who did it, the man replied. "It was Uchiha Itachi."." Itachi's voice broke slightly, his emotion only brushing his voice. Even this, for someone who had become so adept at hiding his feelings, was a lot of emotion, even though no one who didn't know him would never have noticed.

"The Hokage knew that it couldn't have possibly have been me. He offered me a chance to clear my name. But I knew that we need a spy in the Ataksuki, so I declined. I wanted to keep the village that our family loved so much, that I loved so much, safe. I knew that you would believe the rumors, but I told the Hokage not to tell you the truth, though he offered. I knew that my story would be much more believable if my brother, who would know of my crime, hated me. It would be suspicious if you didn't. So whenever you came after me, I could hardely go easy on you, after all, Kisame was with me. I kept giving my mission reports to the Hokage. When the Hokage died, luckily, he had thought to leave a note for the next Hokage, Tsuade-sama, so she didn't shoot me at first sight.

"Unlike the Third Hokage, she already knew who her successer was and suggested that I strated to meet with him, so he would get to know and trust me for when he became Hokage. Imagine my surprise when I saw Uzumaki Naruto in the spot I was supposed to meet someone that Tsunade-sama had described as "One of my most brilliant ninja's just as advanced if not more so then you." To be honest, I thought that Naruto-kun had just wandered there by mistake. He apparently figured the same, as he immediately turned around and headed the other way. I figured, that maybe, just maybe, it really was him, so I yelled out the code word that we had been givin, I mean, everyone knew that he wanted to be Hokage, and when I say everybody, I mean _everybody_. And some people knew about the current Hokages affection for him, so it might have been him.

"When I yelled out the password, he stopped dead. Right in the middle of the road, and turned slowly on his heel. When he turned around, I was surprised, he looked like such a different person. He, slowly, hesitantly, gave me the return code. Then he tried to act stupid again." Itachi snorted. "If I hadn't heard all that Tsunade-sama's praise for him, I would have thought that his serious from a moment before was merely something that only happened once a blue moon. I took a gamble. I told him to drop the stupid act, that he wasn't fooling anyone. His face changed immediately, became wary. Then he got that listening expression that he gets when he talk to Kyuubi-kun, and relaxed completely. From then on, it was only Naruto-kun who came for the mission reports. Only very recently have I been able to come to his house. It's because of a jutsu he invented, somewhat like henge. You'll have to get Kyuubi-kun or Naruto-kun to explain it, I can't, I don't understand it at all." Itachi finished simply, glancing at the fluffy ball of fur formely one of the fiercest known ninjas of Konoha. Said ball of fluff was sitting, digesting this new piece of information.

"Come on Itachi-kun, lets give him time to think it over, ne?" Kyuubi said, taking Itachis arm and leading him away from where he was looking at his brother in mild concern. Itachi turned a very faint pink as Kyuubi gently guided him away.

77777777777

Naruto was sitting in his hidden room, drawing in his sketch book. He had locked everyone else out. No one but Kyuubi knew how to get in without his permission, and Kyuubi already knew what was in it. He just didn't want Sasuke-neko to see it. And he definetly didn't want Itachi to see it. Suddenly the faint scent of something burning reached his sensitive nose. He put the sketchbook back into it's shelf, making sure to put the protective jutsu back on.

"Itachi-kun!" He shouted, standing up. "What have I told you about my kitchen?" he stomped to said room to find Itachi holding a burn pan of. . .something unrecognizable. Naruto was hardly even phased by the fluffy pink apron that he was wearing, that's how mad he was. Naruto began to scold him.

"What did I tell you the last time you tried to cook? And what is that supposed to be? Ok, who told you that eggs and peanut butter was a good combination? And why the hell did you mix it in the pan!" While Naruto was ranting, Kyuubi quietly snuck up behind Sasuke and picked him up. He looked up at the kitsune, who put a finger to his lips. He carried Sasuke away from the kitchen, Sasuke didn't protest, as he was still trying to get the image of Itachi in a fluffy pink apron out of his head. Kyuubi took Sasuke into the hidden room, walking over to the mountain of pillows by the guarded shelves.

"I'm sure you want to see what's in these shelves. Well, I'll hold you up so that you can see the top ones. I can't open them now, Naruto won't take that long." he grinned, before putting Sasuke on top of his head. From his new perch Sasuke could see all the things in the shelves. On every single top shelf was a nice, neatly wrapped present. All different shapes and sizes, with different bow and wrapping colour. They were all beautifully wrapped. Sasuke blinked.

"_What are those?_" he meowed. Kyuubi grinned.

"Those, kiddo, are your presents. From Christmas, your birthday, Valentine's day, any holiday that you get presents on and some you don't, there is a present up there, from every year since before you tried to leave. They're sorted by holiday, with the most recent present in the front. Those shelves are much deeper then any of the others."

"_Why doesn't he give them to me, or throw them away, why does he keep them?_" Sasuke asked. Kyuubi looked grimish.

"He tried, one year, a while ago. I remember that before he got to actually hand it to you, you said something horrible to him. I don't remember what it was, but if you ask the kit, I'm sure he will. The next time he tried was your birthday, and I remember that year that he decided not to after seeing a girl leave your presence in tears. He keeps them because he still hope that one day, he'll actually be able to give you one." Sasuke thought this over. He decided that this was one of the things in life that he would never understand. So wouldn't try. (A/N: Sorry if I seem like I'm making Sasuke stupid, it's not on purpose, I promise you, I love all Uchihas. But he still can't even comprehend the thought of Naruto liking him, for him. He's never had someone liking him for something other then his looks, so he doesn't know what to look for, plus, Naruto is also someone who he thought hated him for most of his life.)

"Wait, Naruto-kun! Um! Will you untie the apron I can't get it off." came a very loud voice from the kitchen.

"That's our cue, kiddo." Kyuubi said. "I'll see if we can get you into the sketchbook some other time." he took Sasuke out of the room, little did Sasuke know that his "fun" for the day was far from over.

7777777

"KYUUBI!" came a pissed off yell from the bathroom, shortly followed by the sound of someone turning off the water. This was followed by a very naked Naruto coming out of the bathroom, looking very much like he would like to murder the nearest fox that he saw. He turned to the side, where he saw Kyuubi holding a small cat, who, Naruto couldn't help but feel, was checking him out. The cat seemed to go into one of it's now regular shocks. "Kyuubi, you killed Sasuke-neko!" he said, loudly. Needless to say, this is not the best thing to say in a house where an over-protective older brother is staying.

"Who killed Sasuke? Is he alright?" said Itachi as he rounded the corner. He stopped, taking in the picture in front of him, which was a dripping naked Naruto, pointing at a dry, smirking Kyuubi, who was holding a fluffy, shocked and slightly drooling cat.

"GOD Naruto-kun! Put on a freaking towel. I think I've been scarred for life. My eyes! My poor innocent eyes!" Itachi yelled, closing his eyes, then covering them with his hands just in case. There a roar of fury as Naruto stepped back into the bathroom and tied a towel around his waist.

"Sorry, Itachi-kun, you can look now." Naruto said, with forced calm. "Now, Kyuubi, you. Are. SO DEAD!" He said, Kyuubi, who had seen this coming broke into a sprint. Naruto ran after him, yelling curses and swears. He finally caught him, grabbing the kitsune in a head lock, Kyuubi dropped Sasuke, who luckily landed on his feet, he could get used to these reflexes.

"Don't-ah, hit me-itai! I was just an-ow, nearly innocent-ouch! By stander!" Kyuubi said as Naruto did his best to punch his head in.

"NEARLY INNOCENT MY ASS!" Naruto shouted. Which subconsciously drew Sasuke's gaze to aforementioned towel-clad body part. It was a very nice ass. Not that he knew very much as far as asses went, he didn't go around looking at peoples asses, but for Naruto he would make an exception. He went back to pondering the finer points of Narutos ass, which, in his opinion, was most of it. It was a very short towel, as Naruto had just grabbed the first thing at hand. He also noticed that Naruto had a very nice, well muscled chest, he had always imagined Naruto to be more, well, roundish.

He also, as he had when Naruto had worn the Christmas dress, noticed that Naruto had very nice legs. All long and smooth and stuff. He was suddenly brought out of his daydream by a pair of blue eyes. They were peering in concern into his own. He was again thankful for his dark fur, as it hid his dark blush as he realized that he'd just been staring at Naruto's ass. Regardless of how nice of an ass it was. He shook his head frantically, trying to get such thoughts out of his head.

"Hey, Kyuubi, let's pretend that I'm talking to you again, alright?"

"Sure."

"So, if I were talking to you, which I'm not, I would ask of you knew whats wrong with my cat, he seems to be going into shock a lot."

"Maybe Sasuke owned him and all Sasuke's behavior has rubbed off on him."

"That doesn't explain these shock sessions, Sasuke doesn't go into shock."

"But if Sasuke could see the real you, he probably would."

"I suppose."

"Maybe you should go put some clothes on, your liable to traumatize Itachi-kun at this rate."

"Yeah, but then you'd get to play sweet caring doctor….or nurse." Naruto winked as he stood up, heading towards his room to change into some decent clothes as Kyuubi sputtered behind him

- - -To Be Continued- - -

That's all for that chapter, yes it was insane, but the first part was so serious that I had to lighten it up some how and I put in some hints, ok more than hints. That Sasuke is starting to feel something about Naruto. Don't worry it won't be one of those fics where he only realizes that he likes Naruto because he thinks Naruto is hot. Because that's called lust, not love, and while lust is fun hentai grin I prefer it when my characters are genially in love, not just. 'Oh, he's kissing me, and I've just realized that I love them.'

In fact I despise fics that are like, Sasuke starts kissing Naruto and Naruto struggles at first and Sasuke seduces him, because technically that's called rape. And then Naruto's like "Oh, because that was so much fun, I just _have_ to be in love with him.' And yes there are fics like that, many of them. X.X

Anyway, review! And thank my beta for her wonderful help! Oh, and I'm sorry this chapter is so short, the others will be longer, I hope. . .


	8. A New Worry

Hullo all! Thanks for all my lovely reviews, I love you guys really I do. And to those of you who don't know, I have put up two fics, one called Happy Is What Happens, which is drabbleish. And the semi-sequel called Broken which may become mulitchaptered if I feel like it. -.-'

By the way. Those of you who write really long, nice reviews with questions or opinions or comments or something, and then don't sign it, it gets really annoying, because I go 'Oh, I like this review, I'll reply to it." Then I can't because you have no e-mail. So T.T. Just so you know

- - -Recap- - -

Itachi tells Sasuke about his past. Sasuke gets an eyeful of something he'd rather not see. Or so he says…. Kyuubi also shows Sasuke a ginoramus supply of presents, all of which Naruto bought for Sasuke but never gave him

- - -End Recap- - -

Oh! And I, he authoress, died my hair blue/purple! It's purple under natural light, I.e. the sun and blue under inside lights.

- - -Start Fic- - -

"Stop squirming you!" Naruto said crossly, holding Sasuke in his arms as the cat struggled against his strong hold. "If Sasuke is your owner, you want to go home, ne?" The people lining the streets were glaring at him, and he could hear people saying the words 'crazy' and 'talking to himself'. Sasuke was more protective of Naruto then people gave him credit for, and not want to have to make Naruto talk to him again, and have to face he glares of the village folk, he stopped fighting Naruto's grip.

He sank back into the warm arms, enjoying it more then he felt he should. He had come to terms with the minor detail that he was not, in fact, dreaming. After all, he wouldn't dream of seeing Naruto naked. And that was a sight he had definitely seen. And what a sight it was…. He shook his head, he wasn't thinking that, really. He wasn't.

He highly doubted that Naruto would actually be able to find his house, but with all the other things surprising about Naruto, why not this. And sure enough, before he knew it, they were standing in front of his own house. He blinked. Well, another theory about Naruto down the drain. He resolutely decided that he would not be surprised by anything that Naruto would do in the future.

Naruto rang his doorbell, the high sound echoing through the large house. Naruto grinned down at Sasuke

"Sasuke sure has a big house, doesn't he?" Naruto said, as though telling Sasuke something that he was not previously aware of. Stupid dobe. They stood and waited at the door for a bit, Naruto waiting for Sasuke, and Sasuke wondering when the hell Naruto would realize that he wasn't home.

"Hmm, he should have answered the door by now. I'll see if he's home." _Eh? _Sasuke thought _See if I'm home, how's he gonna do that?_ He looked questionably up at Naruto, who had his eyes closed.

"Nope, not home." Naruto affirmed. Sasuke rolled his eyes. Then he paused, how had Naruto known that. All he had done was close his eyes? The hell? He pawed at the orange sleeve before mewling up at Naruto in what he hoped was a confused meow. Naruto grinned down at him.

"I knew you were clever. Even though I can't understand you, you still find ways to ask things. Are you asking how I could tell that Sasukes not here. Or." he added with a mocking grin. "Do you want me to put you down to go to the bathroom." The grin on his face told Sasuke that he was being made fun of. He hissed at Naruto anyway. Naruto's grin widened.

"Right, I just spread out the range that I can sense chakra at. It should be wide enough to cover all of the house and a good bit of the back, but you never know when Sasuke will go off to sulk in the little cave in the very back corner of his grounds. It's about 5 feet from where my range ends, when I don't extend it." Sasuke blinked. Even his chakra sensing range wasn't that far. Wait… how did Naruto know about that cave? Come to think of it, Naruto knew a lot of things he shouldn't, at least not under the laws of nature, or the more specific law that declared that Uzumaki Naruto should have the mentality of a three year old. Like how had he known Sasuke's birthday. Sasuke had never told anyone, for fear of another day to be mobbed by his fangirls.

"Meh, then I'll just go check the forest. I can use a transportation jutsu to get there, so it won't take us that long. The reason I didn't teleport here was because of the chance that Sasuke might glance out of his window and see me. Then I'd have some explaining to do. Not that the stubborn idiot would believe anything I say. He's like that. He'd probably just think he was imagining things, even if I told him." Naruto laughed, but it had a bitter edge. Then they were in the forest, about a meter from the place where the two of them spared, on occasion. Naruto closed his eyes briefly for a moment, then opened them.

"Not here either. Something's not right. We didn't see him in the village, and there were girls in other parts of the village, so he's not there, if he were, the parts of town where he wasn't would look like an all male town, as the girls flock to Sasuke in droves." Naruto said. "Come on, we're going to Tsunade-baachan. She might have sent him on a mission. Then, before Sasuke had quite noticed the tingling sensation that filled him whenever they transported, they were in the Hokage's office.

_Isn't that dangerous? _Sasuke wondered. _That anyone could just waltz right in here undetected._

"Boo." Naruto said, the Hokage who had been innocently sitting at her desk jumped about a foot in the air.

"Jeez brat! Can't you make a popping noise or something? Like most people do when they transport?"

"Nope, that would make me less awesome." he joked, sitting down in the chair across her and leaning back.

"Awesome sure. Now why are you here. Or is it just to chat. Do you want another mission, because I told you, no more then 3 a week, especially this time a year." She sounded resigned. Naruto laughed.

"You mean Christmas? It's no different than any other time for me. It's not like I get presents. The only difference to me is it's cold and everyone wears red and green. Oh, and you put me in little red things with fluff on it when I go to get information. Although I do admit, the shorter the outfit, the more information I get. No, that's not why I'm here, I just want to know if you gave Sasuke a mission that I didn't know about. Usually you leave the actual assigning of missions to me. In fact, you leave most things to me. All you do is sign papers and look pretty. And act old." he laughed again as she swatted his head, making a loud 'thwap' sound.

"What do you know brat, it takes talent to look this good. And no I didn't give your precious Uchiha a mission. I do leave the assigning of missions to you. And whats that you got in your arms? Start using a purse?" she laughed. Naruto snorted.

"Hardly. I'm so masculine that a purse would just look stupid on me." it was Tsunade's turn to snort. "But anyway, this little 'thing' is a cat that I found." he held Sasuke up so that Tsunade could see him better. She looked the small cat over.

"He looks kinda tiny, you sure that's a cat? Not just a big, fluffy rat." she said, smirking. Sasuke tried to break free of Naruto's hold. Who cared if she was the Hokage! He was going to scratch her eyes out! No one called Uchiha Sasuke a fluffy rat and got away with it. Tsunade stared at him as if he were possessed.

"Um, Naruto, I think that you cat is crazy." She remarked.

"Yeah, I get that a lot. I like him though, he actually seems to understand what I say."

"Are you sure that he's not a spy? There is a bloodline for people to turn into animals."

"Yeah, I know, the Inuzuka can do something similar, I won't be surprised if they can do that to. And this guy isn't from any bloodline clan. The only way he's a human is if he's stuck that way. But then I'd be able to understand him." Sasuke knew that this wasn't true. What he could piece together was that Kyuubi could understand all animals and as Naruto had all of Kyuubi's senses, he would be able to understand him. But apparently Kyuubi had cut off that trait. _I'll get Kyuubi to describe it later_. He was surprised how easily he adjusted to the thought of asking what he had thought was a blood thirsty monster for anything.

"But that isn't the point." Naruto said. "Where is Sasuke. He's not here. Not in the village."

"That's strange. I'm assuming you want to be givin the mission to find him?"

"I don't think that he left, for good. Not this time Let's give him the standard four day time limit. I'll keep my senses open."

"Brat… you do know that four days is the two days after Christmas, right?"

"Yes, I know that. I don't see how that's revalent."

"I thought that you were planning on spending this year with Uchiha." she asked questionably. He laughed bitterly.

"I was only hoping to. No different than any other year. Anyway, if you don't know where Sasuke is, I have to go. Even if I don't expect presents from everyone else, they seem to expect it about me, and you know how I am about expectations." He said. Then left the office, ignoring the startled shouts of the Anbu that stood guard outside the door.

8888888888888888888

"Alright, I have my normal predictable presents that everyone expects from me, now all I need is one for Sasuke, wherever he is." Naruto said. "What do you think that Sasuke would like, little neko?" the brunette asked the cat in his arms. The reason that he was a brunette was so that friends wouldn't be getting broken or damaged gifts for Christmas. "Hmm, I heard him say that he needed a new set of kunai… I haven't gotten him that yet!" he exclaimed happily, heading towards the weapon shop.

The employees there greeted him with a warm smile and enthusiastic greetings.

"Back again, Tori-kun?" The shop owner questioned. "Boys! Tori-kun's back, get ready for mass income and special orders!" he called back. He turned back to the disguised Naruto. "What'll it be this time?" he asked. Naruto smiled at him.

"Twelve dozen kunai with the usual engraving, please." he said. The man grinned.

"Got it, you just come back here in two days and we'll have it, but since you're my favorite customer, I'll have it by tomorrow."

"You're too kind." Naruto laughed, the bell ringing behind him as he closed the door to the shop. From inside the shop they heard the man's bellow.

"You heard 'im boys! Tori-kun's usual, make it kunai this time!"

Sasuke blinked. Twelve dozen special order kunai, with a special engraving. That was very very expensive. He had not bought any for himself simply because he did not feel as though that should be the sort of thing one should give oneself. And Naruto was giving it to someone… but who? He seemed to really care about this person, to buy them such an expensive gift for suck a meaningless thing as Christmas. He wasn't sure why, but he felt strangely as if he would like that person to be him.

Naruto seemed to buy personalized weapons fairly often, and for the same person as he had merely said 'the usual', and the men there had known exactly what he meant. This implied that he always ordered the same thing, for the same person. When they arrived at the house they found Kyuubi and Itachi in the midst of a solemn game of chess. Naruto smirked and put a finger over his mouth at Sasuke.

He tipped-toed across the room with much more stealth than Sasuke had ever seen him display and crept up behind Itachi. When Kyuubi looked up, Naruto held a finger to his lips again, and Kyuubi's lips twitched in an effort to hide his smile.

"BOO!" Naruto shouted suddenly, causing Itachi to jerk with his hand on his rook, scattering almost all of the chess pieces onto the floor. Itachi glared at Naruto who was laughing so hard that tears were leaking from his eyes.

"So- hahaha-much for- Hahahah- Uchiha- Hashanah- protégées." Kyuubi laughed, trying to breath between his laughter. Itachi glared at him before finally turning his glare on his younger brother, who was making a very strange sound indeed, and givin the circumstances could only be laughter. When they had finally all calmed down enough to make intelligent conversation, Kyuubi complained that they had messed up the game, but Naruto said he didn't really care, and that even if he had cared, it would have been worth it, which set them all off again.

That night Naruto spent wrapping presents for the upcoming Christmas party the following day.

88888888888888888

The Anbu assigned to guard the door of the Hokage were having a strange day. It had started off when a stranger with dark hair and light eyes had walked into the Hokage tower demanding to see the Hokage. They had, of course, forbade the man entry, as they had never seen him anywhere, despite the fact that he wore a Konoha headband. They also hadn't heard of anyone who matched his description, so this man was obviously not a Konoha nin.

But when the Hokage had emerged from her office upon hearing the commotion, the man had said something to her. The men had not been able to hear but they caught the name of Uchiha and something about the Kyuubi brat. The Hokage had turned to them and said quite sternly that if A) they could not keep unwanted visitors quite enough not to bother her, then why not just let them in, it would cause her just as much stress either way and B)If they could not let the right people in when they gave the right password, she would damn well go without guards since she was the Hokage and could take care of her own self. Then she had whisked off to her room, the stranger in tow.

They had heard the quite murmur of voices for a few moments, then a sudden burst of laughter that they heard so rarely from the Hokage, as well as a screamed shout of hilarity that sounded something like

"A CAT!" before more hysterical laughter. They wondered what could have happened to make their Hokage laugh so hard and what cats had to do with anything. There had been more voices when the laughing had settled down. As the door had opened, they had vaguely heard something that they were pretty sure they were not supposed to hear.

"You Uchihas never fail to amuse me." Uchihas? The men wondered. What Uchihas? There was only one, and that was definitely no Sasuke in there. The man had walked out, smirking at them slightly, and giving the distinct impression that he was mentally sticking his tongue out at them while holding up a victory sign.

8888888888888

"Alright! I now have everyone's presents wrapped in time for the party!" Naruto exclaimed happily. "So, Kyuu, do you think Sasuke will be there?" he asked. "I'm actually going to give him his present this year!"

"I thought that you had to pick it up today?"

"I sent a clone. See, it's right here." Naruto grinned, holding up a box wrapped with dark blue wrapping paper with 'Happy Christmas' written on it in red and white. "So do you think he'll be there?" his eyes were shining with hope, and Kyuubi glanced at Sasuke, who was sitting in Naruto's lap, before answering.

"Does he usually come to these things?" There, not to bad, not a lie, but not telling Naruto directly that Sasuke wouldn't be there. Narutos eyes dimmed a bit, but brightened up so fast that Sasuke figured that he must have been seeing things.

"Oh, well, I'll just give it too him on Christmas day, ne?" his voice sounded happier then before, not more upset, and Sasuke shook the feeling that this was only an act to hide pain. No one could act that good, 'specially that moron, they had been on spying missions and Narutos bad acting had blown they're cover every time. And why would Naruto be sad enough to have to hide it just because Sasuke wasn't going to at some party.

88888888888888888888

Naruto walked towards Sakura's house, each of his presents balanced perfectly on top of each other with Sasuke on the top. It had taken Kyuubi almost fifteen minutes for the kitsune to convince the stubborn Uchiha to get on the freaking pile, that Naruto had excellent balance when he wanted to. Then when they had been about to leave the house, he had been shocked when Itachi's had transformed into a tall man with curly dark brown hair and weird gold eyes. When Sasuke had looked at him curiously, he had explained that because of the Sharingan, his eyes could never turn to a natural colour again, it was always red gold or silver, unless he had a specific person in mind. Naruto had been working on fixing this since Itachi arrived.

Kyuubi hadn't changed his appearance at all, except his ears disappeared. Naruto obviously then thought something to him, (apparently they could do that) and Kyuubi had blushed a bit. When Itachi had left hearing range, Naruto told Sasuke that the only reason Kyuubi had kept the ears in the first place was in the hopes that Itachi would find him cute. He had then snickered and told Sasuke not to tell Kyuubi, but Itachi already thought that, ears or no

This caused Sasuke to blink, repeatedly, His older brother and Kyuubi no Kitsune. . .? Well, it wasn't something he would ever have thought possible, but it certainly explained Itachi's long search for Kyuubi and the reason that Kyuubi had not killed him on the grounds of such a search, for Sasuke had heard that Kyuubi. . .objected to being hunted. To put it mildly.

When they were approaching the door to Sakura's house, Kyuubi suddenly stuck out an arm, almost hitting Sasuke in the face. Sasuke blinked. Why was Kyuubi showing him his arm?

"Hop on." Naruto muttered. Sasuke wasn't sure why but he decided to do as asked. Naruto suddenly began struggling with the presents, even though they had been perfectly balanced. Kyuubi rang the door bell. Like a well rehearsed play, Naruto walked in the door struggling to keep all his presents in hand.

"KONICHIWA SAKURA-CHAAAAAAAAN!" he said happily. "Look, I managed to get these here all by myself. Woa, wo, woah!" he said, swerving here and there as if trying to dance. The presents toppled to the ground around him. "Gomen Sakura-chan." Naruto said mournfully, bending over to pick up the presents. He looked around for the tree. Sakura sighed and picked up a few of the presents and dumped them under the tree in the next room. She glanced at the two men that were wordlessly following them.

"Well Naruto, are you going to keep being rude or are you going to introduce me to your friends?" she snapped. Naruto looked sheepish.

"Gomen Sakura-chan, that is Kyuu-kun." he pointed to the red haired man. "And that is Tachi-kun." he said, pointing to the dark haired man. "And this is neko-kun." he said finally, holding out an arm for Sasuke to jump on, which he did as he felt Kyuubi nudge him a bit.

"Konichiwa Kyuu-kun and Tachi-kun." she said, bowing. "And Naruto, neko-kun is a stupid name for a cat."

"Is not, he's a neko, and a kun, so he's neko kun." he protested loudly. Sasuke saw Kyuubi scratch his nose to hide a grin. Sasuke himself was slightly confused. Naruto was acting like the Naruto he had known for the past six years, loud, stupid and annoying. He was confused, after seeing Naruto act smart for the last few days, he'd thought that Naruto had just gotten a major personality change, but here he was acting like a deadlast again. So, which Naruto was real. . .?

"Ne, Sakura-chaaaaaan, is that bastard here yet?" Naruto asked loudly. Sakura glared at him.

"Sasuke-kun isn't a bastard. And no, he's not."

"But, Sakura-chaaaaan, he is a bastard!" Naruto whined. Sakura hit him on the head.

"Don't talk about my Sasuke-kun that way!" she said. Sasuke wondered when the hell he had become hers.

"Sakura-chan, I thought I heard your lovely voice! It brings life to my heart and fills my ears with joy!" said Lee, walking through the door , getting on his knees and holding a poinsettia (you know those red flowers that are for some reason the official Christmas flower).

"I know that this is only a small token of my affection of you and pales in comparison to your beautiful face, but please accept it as a small Christmas present!" Lee said. Sakura blushed delicately, and took the flower.

"Thank you, Lee-kun, it's lovely. I'll go put it in a vase." She said, and wandered off to do so, Lee trailing after her like a puppy. Kyuubi and Itachi were trying hard to laugh, and as soon as Lee was out of earshot, they gave up the fight.

"Is that the thick brows you were telling us about?" Itachi asked.

"Yeah, that's him." said Naruto, snickering. "Come on, let's go find Gaara."

Ignoring the startled look on Kyuubi's face, he walked off to find the sand nin. He found him trying to avoid the already drunk Kiba, who was wildly swinging his hands around, talking about something that no one could understand. When he felt Naruto coming, he looked up hopefully and mouthed 'help me' at the amused blonde

"Yo! Dog boy, as fascinated as I'm sure Gaara is in your story, I'm going to have to borrow him for a bit. Sorry." he grinned, before grabbing the sandnins wrist, which for some reason pissed Sasuke off, and dragging him from the room.

"Gaars! Long time no see, how in hell did Sakura get you to come here?" Naruto demanded, Gaara, however, wasn't paying attention. He was staring at the red haired man on Naruto's left.

"Is that. . .?" he asked Naruto.

"Oh, yeah, that's him."

"So you mastered the jutsu."

"Yup, sure did. He is now free to wander around causing unlimited mischief. Like just the other day, I was innocently taking a shower, and you know what I find? He switched all my shampoo with strawberry jelly! Strawberry Jelly! So of course I run out to kill him, and then my cat went into shock, which was weird, but he does that. . ."

"Hn. As cool as your jutsu sounds, I'd rather not try it out myself." Gaara said. Naruto, Kyuubi and Itachi all grinned, making Sasuke feel as though he were missing something.

"Wise." They all said in unison, still grinning.

"But really, Gaara, how'd Sakura get you to come?"

"Nothing, nothing. What makes you think I would have to be forced to do anything." Gaara said, glaring at Naruto, who grinned.

"Because you're Gaara, you never do anything unless forced, well, nothing social anyway. And this is about as social as you get."

"Hmph."

"See what I mean."

"Whatever. So, if that's Kyuu-"

"Call me Kyuu-kun, it, well, lets just say that it wouldn't go over well if anyone found out who I really was."

"Ok, so if this is er, Kyuu-kun, who's this guy?" he asked, nodding toward the person who seemed to be trying to stand protectively in front of Kyuubi without seeming to obvious about it.

"That's Tachi-kun." Naruto said, grinning. Itachi glared at him, that name sounded much to cute for his liking.

"Someone I should know?"

"Yes, here Tachi-kun, show him who you are." Naruto said. Gaara looked at the glaring man who's eyes momentarily flashed sharingan red.

"Ah, him. You bring many unexpected visitors with you, Naruto."

"I'm not called the number one surprising ninja for nothing."

"Meh."

"Hey, there you are Naruto! Come on, you're missing all the action!" Lee yelled.

"Action? What action?"

"Ino keeps trying to get Shikamaru under the mistletoe."

"Eh? Really? This I have to see." Naruto said. "Come on Gaara! I want to watch this. You can, I dunno, pretend to be drunk and hit on Neji or something."

"WHAT!" Gaara yelled at Narutos retreating back as Naruto grabbed Sasuke and ran into the other room.

He spent a great part of the night talking with other random people. He watched and saw as Sakura kept sneaking what she probably thought were subtle looks at Lee, who was pointedly ignoring the alcohol that Konohamaru and his friends (who hadn't, in fact, even been invited) kept trying to give him. The 15th time this happened, Naruto was starting to get annoyed. The 25th time, he stood up, grabbed Lee and Sakura, dragged them to the closest doorway and connecting mistletoe and said.

"See, look, mistletoe. Now freaking kiss already!" Sakura and Lee glanced at each other, embarrassed, before leaning closer together. Naruto looked away, as happy as he was for them, seeing Lee kiss anyone was a bit gross. When they pulled apart, everyone cheered and clapped, even Gaara and Neji, who had no idea what was going on, as they had been to busy talking to pay attention. (A/N: They were talking, not snogging, sheesh, get your heads out of the gutter, honestly.) Sakura and Lee blushed, before Sakura looked at her watch.

"Oh, look at the time. We should start the countdown!" Indeed, there were only a convenient ten seconds left before Christmas day.

"Ten, nine, eight…etc…ONE!" They all shouted. Naruto's voice loudest of all as he yelled

"PRESENT TIME!" Grinning like a mad man, he dived under the tree, with Sasuke digging his claws into the jacket and holding on for dear life. Naruto grabbed all the presents with his name on them, which he, in keeping with this persona, had sorted in to a nice pile.

"NARUTO! Calm down! Other people have presents too!" Sakura snapped, hitting Naruto on the head. Naruto wailed in distress.

"SAKURA-CHAAAAAN!"

88888888888

In the end, Naruto had about 15 gift cards for ramen, with each one, his smile had gotten wider and wider and he had glomped each person that had givin him one. From Gaara he had gotten a book of jutsu's with a bonus section on making your own jutsus. Naruto hadn't glomped him, he had just smiled, a real smile. And nodded. And Gaara had understood. From Shikamaru he had gotten him a weapon sharpener. Naruto had smiled at him too. From everyone else, he got ramen. Sasuke had never shown up. In the end, the only present left was a box wrapped with dark blue wrapping paper with 'Happy Christmas' written on it in red and white.

Sakura sighed.

"Why do you even bother anymore, Naruto? Even Kakashi-sensei and I have stopped brining his presents to the parties we give them to him later. I mean, do you see presents for him from anyone else under that tree? No. And everyone her knows that he'll just take your present and burn it." She said, not bitterly, just stating a fact. Kakashi put a hand on her shoulder, and when she looked at him, he just shook his head. No one except Sasuke, who had been in Narutos lap, saw Narutos down turned eyes darken a shade, his mouth turned down. Suddenly, so suddenly that it startled Sasuke, Naruto broke out into his fox grin.

"Ne, Sakura-chan, that's just how nice I am. Anyway, I have to be heading home, I'll see you guys later." he grabbed his present for Sasuke and got up. Itachi and Kyuubi followed him wordlessly, as did Iruka and Kakashi.

"She shouldn't have said that." Kakashi said.

"Naruto. I don't think that Sasuke would burn your present. I think that you should give it to him this year." Iruka said.

"Yeah. I'll try. Thanks you two." He turned around and headed back to his home. Itachi and Kyuubi followed him, still not talking.

"Wait." Naruto said. "You two head back to the house, I'll be right there." he told them, handing them the present. When he tried to hand Sasuke to Kyuubi. Kyuubi shook his head.

"Keep him, it'll do him some good to see your Christmas ritual." Naruto was confused, what would a cat care, but kept Sasuke anyway. Kyuubi and Itachi walked back to the house, while Naruto followed an alley way where homeless people were sleeping restlessly on each side, lining the buildings.

With all the stealth of a true ninja, Naruto crept among them, his shoes making no sound as he expertly would his way through bodies and trash. Next to each sleeping person, he laid one of the ramen cards. When all his ramen cards were gone, and all the people had one, and some had two, he left, whispering as he left the alley. "Merry Christmas."

88888888888888

Naruto stood in his hidden room, Sasuke on his shoulder. He wordlessly reached up and put the box on the Christmas shelf.

"Another year, gone. Merry Christmas, Sasuke." his voice rang with bitterness.

- - - To Be Continued- - -

Sorry that's its so short, I think anymore in this chapter would be over kill. So yeah, if it helps any, it had a lot in it, and I've been up till one in the morning every night this week just to get your freakin chapter up. So X.X be grateful, I'm gonna go collapse in bed now. And yes, I know that it's a bit late for it to be Christmas, but I had put him in a Christmas outfit earlier, so I had to make it Christmas. Oh, and either next chapter or the one after, Sasuke will finally figure out that Naruto likes him that way. So yeah, the more reviews, the sooner and better the chapters . oh, and if you leave a good review and your e-mail,or log in or somin, I'll prolly reply.


	9. A New Knowledge

Hiya! I hope you guys all loved that last chapter. This chapter might get a bit angst-y . Oh, and to all of you who picked up on the fact that Shikamaru knows more than he lets on.

- - -Recap- - -

It's Christmas day, Sasuke didn't show up for the party, duh. Tsunade knows about Sasuke being a cat. Um, yeah, oh and Naruto's being all angst-y because Sasuke isn't there.

- - -End Recap- - -

Naruto yawned and stretched, the bright sun flooding through his window and into his sensitive eyes. He winced. He noticed Sasuke lying next to him, his black fur soaking in sunlight like a cloth. He smiled sadly as he gently ran his fingers through that silky fur, wishing that it was that actual Sasuke he was touching like this, and not just a cat that he had found. He sighed heavily.

It was still Christmas, and he had guests. He gave Sasuke's fur one last stroke before getting up and walking to the living room. He hadn't had time to buy a tree, he had never needed one before and he hadn't even known Itachi was staying until all the trees were gone. Despite that, he still got up and gathered the presents that he had gotten for everyone and put it in a nice pile beside the fire place.

He lit the fire and got up to make hot chocolate, as the smell of the cocoa filled the house, he mentally began his countdown.

'5' the sounds of stirring

'4' the sounds of someone getting up

'3' the sounds of someone finding slippers and opening the door

'2' the sounds of someone walking down a hall

'1'

"IT'S CHRISTMAS! COME ON ITACHI-KUN, UP, UP!"

"GAHHH! WHAT THE HELL! KYUUBI WHY THE HELL ARE YOU ON MY BED DAMNIT!" Naruto giggled as he placed the three steaming cups of hot chocolate on the hearth, topped with whipped cream, along with a bowl of hot chocolate for the cat. He wasn't sure if cats liked hot chocolate, but you could never tell.

"GET OFF ME YOU CRAZY FOX!" Naruto heard a murmur of voices

"I DON'T CARE IF IT'S CHRISTMAS! I NEED MY SLEEP!"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T CARE?"

Sasuke came padding through the door, wearing a 'what the fuck?' expression on his face.

"GUYS SHUT UP YOU'RE GOING TO TRAUMATIZE MY CAT!" Naruto yelled at them. "Itachi-kun, Kyuu's right, we have presents." there was a triumphant laugh from Kyuu before Naruto continued "And Kyuu, stop molesting my guest." Naruto laughed. "Now both of you stop mooning over each other and come open presents." Apparently they decided that it would be wise for them to come over there, there was no knowing what kind of things Naruto would pull out of nowhere.

They both walked in, their faces red. Naruto grinned and winked at Sasuke, who was still 'wtf?'ing .

"OK everyone, present time!" Naruto said, grinning as Kyuubi and Itachi stood up to get their own presents from where they had been hiding them. When they had retrieved all their presents and gathered in front of the roaring fire. Naruto made sure that everyone had their hot chocolate and that they liked before he would even take his presents. Then he passed out the presents and was trying to force everyone to open their presents, until Kyuubi grabbed a present from the pile and shoved it in Naruto's hands.

"No, you open your damn presents!" Kyuubi finally snapped. "You had to spend all night at a party waiting for someone, and you get ramen, so open your presents." Naruto blinked, then nodded, looking at the tag of the present n his hands.

"Alright, this is from Kyuubi and to Itachi." he sweat dropped, as did everyone else in room.

"Oh, right, here, this one then." he handed Naruto a flat book-like shaped box. "This one's from 'Tachi." Naruto grinned and took it.

"Thanks guys." he said, before unceremoniously ripping the wrappings off of it. It was a black bound book with gold writing on it '_Memory_'. Naruto stared, before slowly opening the first page. Sasuke stared. He _hadn't_. He looked closer. He had. He was going to kill his brother. He had somehow, he wasn't sure how, gotten his hands on pictures of Sasuke when he was younger.

Luckily for Sasuke, this was a present for Naruto, not to embarrass Sasuke, so they were nice pictures, not pictures of Sasuke naked or anything. There were pictures of Sasuke when he still smiled, when he still trained for fun, just to get better. There were lots of pictures, all of Sasuke. Naruto's eyes clouded up a bit.

"Turn to the back." Itachi said. Naruto did so. On the last page, there was a picture of Sasuke, since he had gotten back from his brief trip to Orochimaru, smiling.

"That's his smile for you, Naruto."

999999999999999999

"And last but not least, Itachi's present for Sasuke, a day we'd never thought we'd see." Naruto narrated loudly. Itachi handed Sasuke a small wrapped box. Sasuke, who blamed his impatience on being a cat, shredded the wrappings off, to reveal a box, that try as he might, he could not open with his claws. Laughing at his attempts, Naruto took the box from him. When he had opened it, he handed it to Sasuke without looking at it. When Sasuke saw it, he hissed angrily at Itachi.

"It expands to, so if you have a sudden. . .growth spurt, it will still fit." Itachi smirked. It was a leash. A red leash, with a red collar, with a gold tag on it that said "Sasuke, Property of Uzumaki Naruto.'

Kyuubi almost passed out from laughing so hard.

9999999999999999

Later that day, Naruto had headed out to do something, he hadn't told where he was going though. Which meant that he was off to look for Sasuke to see of the Uchiha wanted t spend Christmas with him. Like he did every year.

Sasuke decided to take advantage of this to talk to Itachi, after all, what better time to talk than Christmas day? He padded off to find Itachi, only to find him playing chess with Kyuubi, using the new chess bored that Naruto had gotten both of them for a shared present. He grinned, now he could get back at his brother for that present that he had gotten, after seeing how Naruto had managed to scare Itachi, he wondered if he could do the same. Of course he was, he was an Uchiha, he could do anything that Naruto could do.

He padded across the floor, his cat's paws making no sound on the hard wood floor. He stopped by Itachi's chair, bunching the muscles in his legs and jumping up. He landed on Itachi's head, Itachi hardly even flinched, nothing like the spastic reaction that he'd had when Naruto did it.

"Hullo Sasuke." he said, calmly moving his bishop to a strategic square on the board. Sasuke pouted, or at least he would have had he been human. Well, actually he wouldn't have pouted then either, as Uchiha's don't pout, ever. Sulk, yes, pout, no.

"_How'd you know I was coming?_" he meowed while Kyuubi translated. Itachi smirked.

"I could sense your chakra, you're going to have to do better than that, otouto. So, you obviously wanted to talk about something, so what is it?"

"_Whats with Naruto? And what the hell was with that GIFT?_" He screeched. The two winced before Kyuubi translated (A/N: OK, from now on, I won't put that Itachi translated, but he will be translating.) Itachi grinned.

"Something's we have to learn for ourselves, everyone else figured it out on their own."

"_Everyone else?_"

"You mean you haven't figured it out? Why otouto, I'm disappointed in you, everyone else, besides myself, who has figured out that Naruto is not all that he seems. There are very few, and only myself and the Kazekage know about Kyuu actually being able to come and go as he pleases."

"_Who else knows?_"

"I would think that it would obvious. The current Hokage, Jiraiya-sama, and Iruka-san. And your sensei suspects, as does that Nara kid. And the Kazekage, though that was not by choice, nor guess work, though I'm sure he would have figured it out regardless."

"_How'd he find out then?_"

"That you'll have to ask Kyuu-kun, he knows more about it then me." Itachi replied, Sasuke turned his eyes on the kitsune.

"Well, it was a long time ago, in a land far fa-"

"Cut to the crap Kyuu, we're not five."

"Right. Well, basically, since the Godaime is, as the kid puts it 'A lazy old woman' she's basically made Naruto the Hokage in all but name and title. Which means that he takes care of most of the diplomatic meetings, those which don't involve Konoha nins that is, which includes meetings with Gaara. So, imagine Gaara's surprise, when he expects to see the Hokage, he sees Naruto. So Naruto explains and it's all good and happy."

"_And why didn't he tell me?_"

"He didn't _tell_ anyone. It's not my fault if you can't figure it out on your own." Kyuubi said simply. Itachi nodded, which caused Sasuke to have to grip into his head with his claws, as he was still on Itachi's head.

"ITAI!" Itachi screeche- urm, yelled. After all, Sasuke had just dug his very sharp claws into Itachi's head.

"Get off my head!" he said. Sasuke winced in apology before carefully removing his claws and getting off, hoping down onto the table. Kyuubi rushed over to check if Itachi was alright, taking the older Uchiha head in his hands and peering at it. It didn't escape Sasuke that his brother blushed slightly.

"Ouch, that looks painful. It's bleeding but only a bit. The only worry is damaging that pretty hair of yours. Why don't you go take a shower and wash it out?" Kyuubi suggested. Itachi glared at him, but went off to do it anyway. When Itachi had left, Sasuke turned to Kyuubi.

"_How come you can understand me and not Naruto?_" he asked. Kyuubi grinned

"Ah, that would be because of me. Usually Naruto can understand animals, whether I'm in him or not, but I figured I'd salvage your wounded pride and let Naruto keep think that you were mute, so I fiddled with his head, and I made it so that what normal people hear with animals, that's what he hears."

"_Ah._"

999999999999

"Hi." Naruto said, as he suddenly popped into existence by where Sasuke had been sitting on Naruto's pillow pile in the hidden room. Sasuke jumped, landing in a soft, fluffy pile as Naruto laughed.

"Mah, sorry 'bout that." he said, not sounding sorry at all. "I just want to draw, ever since this morning, so yeah, scootch, you can watch if you want." he grinned, nudging Sasuke over on the pillows and plopping down. He effortlessly reached into the cubbies that had shocked Sasuke so rudely before, and grabbed his sketchbook and a handful of pencils. He opened the sketch book to a blank page and began to draw. Sasuke watched, fascinated, as a shape began to gain form on the page. After a while, he began to see that the picture was of him.

He'd never seen himself like that before, he had heard that he was pretty, everyone said it, but with Naruto, he saw how others, or t least Naruto, must see him.

He was leaning over the bridge where they met, his head on his clasped hands. His expression was distant and a small, almost impossible to notice, smile stretched his mouth. Was this how Naruto saw him? If anyone had told him that Naruto drew pictures of him, he would have laughed in their face, Uchiha image or not. Then he would have assumed that it was a stick figure of him with kunais in it. Apparently that wasn't true, and he didn't feel much like laughing.

Naruto sighed as he finished colouring he picture in.

"There, yet another picture done! You want to see the others?" he asked the cat by his shoulder, who nodded. Naruto flipped to the front, where there was a picture of Sasuke standing in the shade of an oak tree.

"Ok, just tell me when you want me to turn the page, k?" he said. Sasuke nodded. He nudged Naruto's hand, which obediently turned the page. This was a picture of team seven, with Kakashi innocently messing up Naruto's hair, with his other arm around Sakura and Sasuke in the middle. He nudged Naruto's hand again. Each page held a picture of Sasuke, sometimes with others around him, but always as the main focus.

What did this mean?

99999999999999

"Calm down you stupid cat!" Naruto said "It's not like I'm going to kill you! I just want to go see the Hokage to see if she as any news on the dumb Uchiha. I mean, honestly, who the hell goes missing on Christmas?"

He pushed open the door to the Hokage tower, passing the guards with a cheery wave, which they glared at.

"Baa-chan! Did you find any news on that teme?" Naruto asked, barging in as if he owned the place.

"Hai, I have news."

"Really? What is it? Tell me!" he yelled, springing towards here and almost dislodging Sasuke from his shoulder.

"He's fine, brat, just busy. He'll be back soon."

"And why didn't you tell me this? I was worried sick about him." he cried. The Hokage smirked.

"Well, that's your fault for being paranoid, isn't it gaki?"

"No, it's your fault for not telling me!"

"Minor technicality. But he's well taken care of, I promise you."

"Taken care of where?"

"He asks that I not tell you."

"He'd never know."

"You'd be surprised."

"Ok, fine, but would he do if you did tell me?"

"Oh." she smirked, her eyes flitting to Sasuke "He'd throw a hissy fit."

The door almost hit the Anbu outside as the loudmouth of Konoha slammed it open. when he strode out.

99999999999999

"Kiba! Get your crazy dog away from me!" Naruto yelled as Akamaru attempted to climb him in an effort to get at the cat on his shoulder. Sasuke hissed at the dog, regardless of the fact that the dog was twice his size. The dog jumped up higher.

Then, it made the mistake of trying to engage the Uchiha-neko in a staring contest. Sasuke, a natural at staring people down, let his eyes narrow in a glare. Akamaru got off of Naruto but didn't break eye contact. Sasuke let ice creep into his gaze, sure to terrify.

Akamaru bent his head in submission. Kiba's mouth dropped open.

"Dude! Your cat just stared down my dog like an Alpha male! Akamaru has never bent his head for anyone, and your fluff ball stared him down! And Akamaru's a ninja dog!"

"He learned it from me!" Naruto exclaimed with false pride.

"Nah, he learned that from Uchiha! Must've been, you couldn't glare if your life depends on it!"

"And just what is that supposed to mean?" Naruto stomped his foot. Kiba grinned.

"Nothing, except that you can't glare like an Alpha male."

"And Sasuke can?"

"Dude, Uchiha may have a stick up his ass, but you got to admit, he's pretty good at glaring." Kiba laughed. Naruto grinned along.

"True."

"Yeah, but really, Sasuke is such a bastard, I mean, he thinks that he can do anything, what is he god?" Kiba laughed, not noticing that Naruto had stopped laughing. He just kept saying rather rude things about Sasuke. Suddenly he was up against a wall. Naruto holding him there.

"Hey, Kiba, no one insults Sasuke but me. And no one, ever, calls him a whore, got it?" Naruto said, his voice deadly cold. Freaked out, Kiba nodded. Naruto grinned and dropped him.

"Good. Now I better be heading home, I got things to do, places to be, people to see, all that jazz." Naruto walked off, Kiba slid down the wall.

"Ok." he said, picking up Akamaru and petting him gently "Maybe he _can _glare like an Alpha male."

9999999999999999

"Mah, I bet you wonder why I do all these things for a jerk who will never see me as

anything more than a irritation, ne?" Naruto asked when they had returned home, as the cat had been staring at him for the whole trip back. Sasuke nodded.

"Because I love him." ignoring his cat's sudden wide eyed expression, he continued. "I know, it's so like me, stupid and irrational, to fall for someone like him. Do you know that he's exactly what I'm _not_ looking for in a life partner. I always thought that I'd fall for a nice pretty girl, who's soft spoken, and smart enough to actually be able to talk to. Someone who would love me as much as I love them. Sasuke isn't any of those things, well, except pretty." Sasuke repressed a growl. "He never talks at _all_ except to insult me, and while's smart, he wouldn't want to talk with me, and he definitely doesn't love me as much as I love him. He just hates me. He's nothing like I was looking for. . .he's more."

9999999999999999

Sasuke sat on the pillow pile, thinking about what Naruto had said. Naruto was in love with him. He supposed that he shouldn't have been surprised, but it was still a shock. Now the question was, how did he feel about Naruto. He knew that he would die for him, or do anything to make him smile that real smile that was to seldom seen. But was that love? If it was, did he love Naruto as much as Naruto seemed to love him? He wasn't sure. Almost unbidden memories popped up, first and foremost, the moment that Naruto had stopped him from going to Orochimaru.

- - - Flashback- - -

"You're making the wrong choice, Sasuke!" Naruto cried, his voice caring grief and anger. Sasuke laughed darkly.

"Am I? Orochimaru is strong, from him I will gain the power that I need."

"You're wrong, he's not strong. And if you chose him, you will never be strong."

"What do you know about being strong? You're the dead last, you could never know strength."

"I know that there are Konoha nins stronger by far then that snake bastard. I know, I've seen them fight! Orochimaru is only one of three Sasuke! Would you really give up everything to become second best?"

"Second best? To who? You? Sakura? Don't make me laugh."

"Konoha has stronger ninjas, because we have stronger wills. If you only look for strength, you'll never find it. True strength comes in protecting the ones you care about. In fighting for someone else. And you can say that it's not true, I don't care, but out there are Konoha nins, no, Konoha chunnins that are beating the hell out of your precious sound nins, who are, what, Jounin? Anbu? And they can't even beat a few weak kids. You're going over to the weak side. _You're going_ _to the losing side._ Is that what you want? To always be weaker than someone."

"I will go to Sound and I _will _get stronger than _him._"

"You want to know what, Sasuke? _You_ won't be stronger than him, Orochimaru in your body, will be. He's just using you, if you let him have you after three years, he's going to kill your soul and take over your body. Is that what you want? IS IT?"

"I-"

And you want to know what else? There are Konoha ninja's stronger than him, and they learned everything that they needed to right here in Konoha. The Yondaime defeated Kyuubi, didn't he, could your Orochimaru, with twice the years and experience, do that? Is that the side you want to be on? Or do you want to come back with me, and get trained by the same person who trained the Yondaime, who was also teammates with the snake freak, and stay with your friends. Or do you want to go to Sound, and kill me. Because that's the only way you're getting there. Over. My. Dead. Body. Got it?"

- - -End Flashback- - -

Sasuke thought back to the time when he had died for Naruto without thinking, all the times that they had fought, and realized that Naruto had been holding back. He wasn't sure what he felt towards his teammate, but he wanted to learn more about the blonde boy, but we wanted to be in his human form. And for that, he would need the help of a prankster, or a kitsune.

- - -To Be Continued- - -

Yay! A chappie! Sorry if it's a bit on the short size, next chappie should be longer, as Sasuke will become human again! Yay!

And many thanks to my beta! Kai19! Her idea with the Kiba thing was all her idea! I just put it into wrds! So yeah!


	10. A New Lesson

Yay! So many yummy reviews! I'm so happy! So yeah!

- - - Recap- - -

Sasuke finds out that Naruto is in love with him, and want to turns back into a human, to do this, he needs Kyuu's help.

- - - End Recap - - -

- - -Start Fic - - -

Sasuke was trying to find Kyuubi. So therefore, he had to find Itachi, because he had learned, that where Itachi was, that's where Kyuubi would be, and vice versa. And one place he felt confident that both of them would be was in front of a chess board. And sure enough, when he padded into the room with the chess bored, there the two of them were, playing chess, as per usual. He sighed, why did they always do that?

He decided that he wasn't even going to bother trying to sneak up on them, so the only thing to do to annoy them would be to jump onto the chess bored… but since he was starting to figure out that his brother could be just as creepy as he had seemed post-massacre, he decided that annoying his brother was not the best of ideas. So he opted to just walk normally over to them and paw at Kyuubi's leg until he had gotten the deamons attention.

When Kyuubi finally looked down, he smirked at Sasuke.

"You do know that meowing would have worked just as well?" he asked. Sasuke glared. Kyuubi raised his hands in a pacifying gesture.

"Oh well, what is it squirt?" Kyuubi asked. Sasuke, needless to say, did not enjoy being called squirt, and hissed, but realized that he did need Kyuubi's help and calmed down.

"_I want to be human again._"

"And why, pray tell, should I oblige?" Kyuubi asked, raising one eyebrow.

"_I want to talk to Naruto._" he said. Kyuubi's voice hardened slightly.

"And why should I let you? You've never wanted to before. You've only wanted to make fun of him."

"_I know that! I just never thought that he would care._"

"Well, obviously, you were wrong." Kyuubi scowled.

"_I, well, I. He said that he's in love with me dammit! How am I supposed to react to that?_"

"You tell me."

"_I don't know, damn it, that's why I want to be human. If I can talk to Naruto, then we can sort this out._"

"Sort it out? Is that all that Naruto is to you? Something to sort out? Fine, I'll turn you human, but you better not hut him, or so help me, I will skin you and than kill you and then burn you and put the ashes through a paper shredder. Uchiha or not. Got it?" Kyuubi asked, his voice deadly. That was the last thing Sasuke heard before his vision went dark.

101010101010101010101010

When he opened his eyes, he found himself lying on the floor of Naruto's living room, wearing only a blanket. Kyuubi and Itachi were peering down at him in slight concern.

"Ne, what happened?" he asked. Or at least tried to, what ended up coming out of his mouth was a confused meow. '_The Hell?_' he thought, he looked down at himself again, he was definitely human. So what was with his voice. He looked up at Kyuubi , who looked very serious. Too serious. He glared at the kitsune, who burst in laughter.

"Sorry, sorry, couldn't resist." he said. Itachi whacked him over the head. "Itai, fine, fine, I'll fix your brother. Crazy Uchiha's" he muttered the last bit under his breath as he made a few handsigns. Sasuke didn't feel any different, so he said nothing.

"Well, can you talk now?" Itachi asked worriedly. Sasuke opened his mouth to answer.

"Yes." he croaked, his voice a bit hoarse. "Water?" he asked. Kyuubi rushed up to get him some, as Itachi was still glaring at him. Sasuke and Itachi looked pointedly away from each other. This was awkward. . .Pride be dammed. Sasuke thought as he stood up to hug the brother that he had thought was as good as dead. Surprised, Itachi froze, before reaching up to hug Sasuke. (brotherly hug peoples, I'm not an Uchihacest shipper)

"Ahem." Kyuubi cleared his throat. "As touching as this brothers reunited at long last scene is, Naruto's gonna be back soon, and I much as he would love to find a naked Sasuke waiting for him at home, it would pose awkward questions, so let's say we get you some clothes hm?" he asked, glancing pointedly at the blanket that had fallen to the floor when Sasuke stood up. Sasuke tried to still look confident while squeaking, bending down, and clutching the blanket around him. He failed. Horribly. Kyuubi snickered and even Itachi looked amused.

101010101010101010101010

When Sasuke had changed into some of the spare clothes that Itachi had brought with him, he started toward the door, but he was stopped by Kyuubi's hand on his shoulder.

"Hold you horses. Don't you think that people will wonder of you just waltz out of Naruto's apartment? Teleport to your house."

"Uh. . .right, I knew that, I was just going to do it outside the door."

"Sure you were." Kyuubi smirked. "I'll see you around. I suggest taking a shower and a nap before leaving your house, you don't look so hot." Sasuke glared at him.

"Hey, Sasuke, I'll see you around?" Itachi asked hesitantly. Sasuke looked at him.

"Yeah, I'd like that. Stop by some time." he grinned before moving his hands in the familiar seals (so thrilled that he could do that again) and was back in his apartment. The first thing he wanted to do was eat, so he started to prepare himself some food, which he was startled to find wasn't as good as Naruto's had been.

Then he caught sight of himself in a reflective surface. He looked awful. His hair hadn't been washed since the first day that he had been a cat, as cats were supposed to clean themselves, and he was hardly going to put his mouth on that filthy fur. Elch. He figured that Kyuubi had been right as far as the shower idea.

When he had finished his shower, he collapsed on his bed, he hadn't realized how tired he was. He fell asleep the second his head hit the pillow.

10101010101010

The light flooded into Sasuke's eyes, waking him up. He sat up in his normal, way to big bed and stretched. Had that all been a dream? The being a cat, the smart-Naruto, Itachi, Kyuubi, and . . . Naruto being in love with him? All a dream? Why did he feel almost. . . disappointed. What? And how could he tell? He supposed that the only thing to do was to confront Naruto. If Naruto acted smart, it was real, if not it was all a dream. He couldn't shake the hope that it was the former.

He dragged his body out of bed and walked to the bathroom. When he looked in the mirror, he was unsure whether to laugh or scream. It seemed that he had gone to bed with his hair wet, resulting in something that looked like a big, spiky, black cotton ball was affixed to his head. He settled for sighing, grabbing a comb and getting it wet and trying to fix his hair that way.

Fifteen minutes later, he was walking out of the house, looking like he always did, the object of females, and Naruto's, affections. '_Now if I were Naruto, where would I be?_" He asked himself. The first thought was ramen, but if it had been real, Naruto hated ramen. . .so, the training area. He headed in that direction, ignoring the girls that were swooning on either side of him. It was nothing new.

When he reached the training area, he saw Naruto, kicking and punching (badly) and altogether looking like an idiot. He walked behind Naruto and tapped him on the shoulder. Naruto swung around with a startled yell

"Ahhh! Hey! Teme! Don't sneak up on me like that! Teme!" He yelled directly in Sasukes ear. Sasuke winced, with each passing second he was getting more and more sure that it had all been a very strange dream

"Hey! Bastard! Don't space out when I'm talking to you! I asked you where you were over Christmas?" Naruto yelled. Sasuke smirked, here was a chance to find out.

"I didn't know that you cared, dobe." Naruto, for his credit, only hesitated for a slight second, so slight that Sasuke never would have noticed had he not been looking for it. And Naruto's cheeks were a fraction of a shade pinker, which could be blamed on the light.

"I don't! Sakura was really upset though! How can you do that to her! Teme!" Naruto yelled. Sasuke frowned. That wasn't true. . . Sakura had been resigned, she had hardly seemed to care.

"Hey! Teme! I practiced more! Now I can beat you!" Naruto yelled, and without any more warning than that, launched himself at Sasukes head. Sasuke caught his foot purely out of reflex and threw him to the ground. Sasuke's frown deepened, so many contradictions. The way Naruto had been fighting, Naruto would be able to beat him easy, but now Naruto was being a pushover. So it must have been a dream, right?

They continued to spar. When Sasuke won on an obvious mistake on Naruto's part, he decided it must have been a dream. Then, before Naruto left, he turned to Sasuke and said

"By the way, I found a cat a while ago? Is he yours?"

101010101010101010101010101010

Sasuke wasn't a stalker. He really wasn't. He was just following Naruto around for . . . Informational purposes. He was also getting more confused by the moment.

So, it wasn't a dream. He had figured that much out. Then what was it, and why had Naruto, who he had seen beat the nine tails with ease, been beaten so easily by Sasuke. He had seen Naruto move with an almost animalistic grace and uncannily good reflexes, but he had couldn't barely block Sasukes hits. So what was Naruto and what was the mask he was starting to see through.

Having watched Naruto through the day, he had noticed things that he had never seen before. The way that Naruto ate ramen so fast, so fast that he couldn't possibly have time to taste it, much less chew it. The way his eyes would flash almost green when Sasuke was mobbed by fangirls. Things that he would never have noticed if he weren't looking, no, searching for.

And when he had followed Naruto home, Naruto hadn't run up the stairs like he had before, he had labored up, and was exhausted by the time he reached the top, just like Sasuke would have expected had he not been there the last few days. When he listened in the door he heard nothing except Naruto saying random things that he would expect an the old Naruto-idiot to say, and wondered vaguely, _Hadn't Naruto said that he had his place soundproofed?_ an when Sasuke peered in the windows, which he told himself was alright, since he wasn't a stalker or anything. He had only seen Naruto walking around, or making ramen, no Kyuubi and no Itachi.

It was only when his eyes started to itch in ways that they shouldn't after such a short time, he got an idea. He wasn't sure if he were right, but making sure could only help. He activated his sharingan. Suddenly everything through the window changed. He was no longer watching a bright-orange-clad Naruto make ramen, but watching Naruto, wearing clothes that he recognized as Itachi's, involved in a heated discussion with Kyuubi. But he could still only hear the sounds of Naruto making ramen.

He almost fell of his perch in shock. Narutos whole apartment was one of the most complex genjutsu's he had seen. Suddenly, his brother appeared before his shocked red eyes. Itachi saw him instantly and quickly waved his hands in a shooing motion. Sasuke tipped his head in confusion, which he blamed later on being a cat for too long. Itachi looked like he would like to hit himself on the head. Or Sasuke on the head.

"He can sense you!" Itachi mouthed. "Leave!" Sasuke needed no further prompting. The next second he was in his manor, his eyes wide. Well that explained more than it didn't. And raised more questions. The reason Naruto hadn't ran up the stairs, or done anything out of the ordinary, was because he had sensed Sasuke following him and hadn't wanted to raise suspicions. But that genjutsu's. How could anyone, much less Naruto, have enough chakra to maintain such a jutsu 24-7? And still have so much chakra to spare? It was amazing! Although he supposed that whenever no one was at the house, he could leave the jutsu off.

"Otouto." came a low voice from his left. Sasuke jumped about a foot in the air and held back a girly squeal. Itachi was standing next to him, as calm as you please.

"Gahh! Niisan! Don't scare me like that!" Sasuke yelled.

"Sorry." Itachi said, not sounding sorry at all. "What were you thinking? Did you honestly think that Naruto-kun wouldn't sense you? Now he's all freaked thinking that you suspect something! Don't you ever think?"

"Urm."

"I thought not. You must remember that that is not the Naruto that you have known for the past however many years. And what you saw over the short time that you were a cat was only a small fraction of the true Naruto.

"If you really want to get to know him, don't follow him or spy on him, he can sense you and act like he can't. If you really want to get to know Naruto, then get to know him, don't analyze him. He's not a problem to be solved. He is just a normal person, who finds it hard to trust people. He trusts you with his life, Sasuke, but not with himself. And not with his heart. You have to earn that. And it isn't going to happen overnight. He might not ever show you the real him, it's up to you to find it."

". . .Alright."

"And Sasuke."

"Yeah?"

"He really does care about you."

". . .I know."

101010101010101010101010

The next day came quite fast, and Sasuke's plan to meet the real Naruto was about to be put into action. Itachi and Sasuke had made plans. Itachi, with Kyuubis help, was going to get Naruto to go out training at around noon, where Sasuke would conveniently bump into him. The he would subtly suggest that they go have something to eat. Itachi had suggested that it not be ramen, as this would show some insight on Sasuke's part.

Sasuke wasn't sure what it was, but he felt this urge to know more about Naruto. That he wanted to know everything about him.

He left the house at a quarter past noon, so that it wouldn't seem to obvious that he was trying to bump into Naruto. When he arrived at their usual training spot, Naruto was there, just as Itachi had said that he would be. He was throwing kunais at a far off target and always hitting off the center, although Sasuke could see a tree much farther back with a target painted on it and kunais marks that hit the center every time.

He suppressed a frown. Had Naruto been doing this for years? Pretending to be something he wasn't? Why would he do that? Well, that was what he was here to figure out, wasn't it?

"Oi! Dobe!" he called. Naruto spun around, the perfect picture of surprise on his face. Sasuke noticed that his eyes were brighter than they had been when was a cat. Was that because of his presence? Had Naruto always been this happy to see him? How hadn't he noticed before?

"Sasuke-teme! What are you doing here?" Naruto yelled back, at what should have been an illegal volume at such close range.

"I came to train, what do you think?" He said sarcastically. This pattern was so easy to fall into, this habit of mocking Naruto. It was simply what he had always done. To think that it bothered his blonde teammate was just as much as a shock as anything else he had learned over the past few days.

"Oh, right." Naruto trailed off, his eyes a slight shade dimmer. Sasuke frown deepened, for some reason, he didn't like seeing Naruto upset. It bothered him somehow. He felt like it was his job to cheer Naruto up.

"Hey, dobe." Sasuke said.

"Yeah."

"Let's get something to eat. My treat." He said, watching Naruto's face carefully. A mixture of shock and happiness crossed the blondes face before he hid it, but Sasuke noticed that his eyes were practically glowing cerulean.

"Ramen?" Naruto asked. Sasuke shook his head,

"Nope, I get to pick."

"Mah, Sasuke's s mean!" Naruto wailed, although he didn't protest beyond that. Sasuke hid a grin of his own. Naruto followed him wordlessly to the village. Not.

He spent the entire time talking about what had happened over Christmas, most of which Sasuke knew to be false. Some of the lies were the normal brags that he would always know were false, like Naruto being attacked by 10 enemy Anbu and beating them while his hands were tied behind his back and then winning a kiss from the beautiful girl. The others were lies that Sasuke only just now realized were lies, like that Naruto had gotten exactly what he wanted for Christmas and of course he didn't miss Sasuke at all, in fact he only noticed when Sakura pointed it out.

Sasuke, who had years of practice tuning the blonde out, figured that it wouldn't hurt to listen for once, so when Naruto turned to him and asked him a question, Sasuke could answer it honestly and watch Naruto's eyes light up. Finally, Sasuke stopped in front of a sushi bar.

"Let's eat here, alright?" he asked, turning to Naruto to see the other boy's reaction. Naruto pouted

"Will they have ramen?" he asked.

"No." Sasuke replied. "But there are other foods in the world other than ramen, dobe. Now come on."

"Don't order me, bastard." Naruto said, though it lacked it's usual vigor, as though Naruto was still to shocked, or too happy, to put real effort into his act. Sasuke grinned outright and could have sworn that he heard Naruto's breath catch. He held the door open for the blonde.

101010101010101010101010101010101010

"And what would you like to eat, Uchiha-san?" the waitress asked politely, her puffy, bright pink pen poised over the paper. She couldn't believe that she, she! Was getting to serve Uchiha Sasuke himself. Even if he was sitting with that deamon kid. She turned slightly to make sure he could see her 'Hi! I'm Coli!" pin. That way he'd know what name to name their child after

"_We'd_ like one shrimp tempura roll and one dragon roll." Sasuke said, stressing the we. She pouted. He hadn't told her which one was his. The chef had made it clear that if that deamon kid ever came into his restaurant, she was to make sure to tell him. When she had asked why, he had told her that no deamon would get decent food from him. That kid could get the scraps and old fish that usually went right to the garbage.

"Uchiha-san. Which one was your again?" she asked, tilting her head in what she hoped was a cute way. He scowled at her.

"Does it matter?" he asked, his voice ice cold.

"Um, yes?" she tried hesitantly. His glare deepened.

"Why?"

"Well, we don't feel like we should waste good meat. . ." she said, hoping that this answer would satisfy him. And that he'd see her point and then fall into her eyes and scoop her up and ride off into the sunset with her on the horse that came from nowhere. A nice white horse. Or maybe a bay one. . .She stared off into space, already wondering what they're babies would look like. She didn't see Sasuke's glare go from deep to danger point until his voice (that perfect wonderful voice) called her back.

"We would like to share them. So if you find it a waste of fish to serve a paying costumer, we'll be going elsewhere." he said. She could practically feel the tips of her long hair (after all, Sasuke _loved_ long hair) freezing from the tone of his voice alone.

"Um, not at all Uchiha-san, but. . ."

"But what." his voice could probably freeze over a volcano.

"Nothing, nothing at all." she squeaked. She hurried off to get his order to the kitchen. Next time she'd let Rin take that whatever table Sasuke sat at.

101010101010101010101010

"You didn't have to do that." Naruto said softly, staring at the table.

"And let you get last weeks rotten fish?"

"I'm used to it."

"Well, you shouldn't be." Sasuke said. Then winced, that hadn't come out exactly like he had meant. Naruto grinned, though Sasuke could see it was fake.

"Gee bastard, thanks for the support." Naruto joked.

"That didn't come out right. I meant that you shouldn't have to be used to it, you shouldn't have to put up with it in the first place."

"Well, something's you learn to deal with. If I were with anyone but you I'd say that we'll have to wait extra long for our food, but your Sasuke, so. . .I'm not sure how long it'll take." Naruto trailed off. Sasuke just nodded.

Itachi said that since Naruto had very little experience in spending long periods of time enjoying himself, when he was actually having fun, he tended to forget to keep his mask on when he was. Sasuke thought that this was really really sad. Even he'd had fun in his childhood. But Naruto. . . What must his childhood have been like?

But that wasn't the point. The point was that if he could find a topic that Naruto enjoyed, he could get the blonde to open up. So what did Naruto enjoy? He searched his mind for something that Naruto would love to talk about. Nothing came to mind. That was when it fully hit him how little he truly knew about his teammate. He knew that he might be in love with the blonde boy.

He had realized this as he had thought about his plan to get Naruto to open up and he had found himself wondering why it mattered so much to him, so get to know Naruto. He had searched his memories and realized that Naruto had always been there, even before they were teammates. Always picking a fight with him, drawing him out of his angsting or brooding. And he realized that the only time he hadn't felt lonely was when Naruto was fighting with him

And it hit him, Naruto had never fought with him out of hate, he had been _including_ him all along. Naruto had done it in the only way that Sasuke would respond to, fighting. Sasuke had brushed off every person who tried to befriended him, so Naruto had gone about it in a different way. He had made himself known first, wormed his way into Sasukes life, until Sasuke couldn't imagine a life without him.

Then he had reached out to Sasuke, warming his revenge darkened life until Sasuke couldn't hate him if he tried. And he had tried, he had tried so hard to hate the blonde boy, to leave him behind with the rest of the village. But Naruto hadn't let him. Naruto had givin him a reason to stay, until Sasuke didn't need a reason, he just needed Naruto.

101010101010101010101010

When they had left the restaurant, full with the wonderful food, which hadn't come rotten, but wonderfully prepared. Sasuke had eventually found something to talk about. Or Naruto had found something that Sasuke liked and they had gotten into a debate, just like Itachi had predicted, all of Naruto's masks had melted slowly, and Sasuke had made sure that Naruto left them with the bill, even if it were only until the day ended.

Somehow, he wasn't sure how, Naruto had convinced him to go on a walk in the woods. While Naruto raced on ahead, he walked more slowly, looking around. This place felt familiar.

"Come on Sasuke! You're too slow!" Naruto said from up the path. Sasuke smiled and quickened his step until he was walking next to the energetic blonde. Naruto turned his head to look at him and smiled. Not a fox grin, or sad smile, but a smile that Sasuke had never seen. It was sweet and innocent and seemed to hold all the suns warmth. That was when Uchiha Sasuke truly fell in love with Naruto. When he felt his heart beat faster in response to one true smile, he knew that it couldn't be anything else. Lost in this startling revelation, he didn't see Naruto stop until he ran into him. Naruto had stopped and was staring at a point on the ground.

Sasuke peered around the blonde to see what he was looking at and he suppressed a gasp. It was a corner of dark cloth. Sasuke suddenly realized how this place looked familiar, this was where he had first turned into a cat. And this was the bush where he had hidden his clothes with the scroll. Oh no. If Naruto saw them, he would surely recognize the jutsu and see Sasuke's clothes and figure out that Sasuke had been the cat. . . Uh-oh.

"Hey, Sasuke, isn't this your shirt?" Naruto asked, bending over to pick it up, unaware that the very Uchiha he was addressing was running around in little metal circles panicking. Naruto grabbed the shirt and the scroll it had been wrapped around tumbled to the ground.

"Hey, whats this? Sasuke why are all your clothes here? I didn't know that you made it a habit to go streaking." Naruto joked. Sasuke made no response, still praying that the blonde wouldn't notice the scroll at their feet.

"Hey, what's this?" Naruto asked. Apparently god hated Sasuke, since Naruto bent down to pick up the scroll.

"Hey, isn't this the scroll that Kyuu. . ." he trailed off with a glance at his companion. "Whats it doing with your clothes. . . Unless. No." he whispered the last part, a look of dawning comprehension on his face. Sasuke watched the emotions flicker across his face. Naruto looked at him, a mixture of horrified realization and hurt understanding on his face.

"It was you." he whispered in a broken voice. "You. . . You saw me naked." he stopped, as the full impact of exactly what Sasuke had seen flashed through his mind. Him naked was the least of his worries. All the lies and masks and smiles that he had carefully built up over the years, and Sasuke had just walked behind it without even touching Naruto's defenses.

"That cat, it was you all along. Wasn't it?" he asked. Sasuke didn't answer. "WASN'T IT!" he yelled. Mutely Sasuke nodded. Naruto's face flashed horror and he took a step back, his head fell forward, his bangs hiding his eyes.

"Why? Why, Sasuke?" his head snapped up, his normally blue eyes bleeding into red, wide with his fury. "Was it to know my weakness? Did you really hate me that much?" his hands clenched on the scroll. "Never mind, I don't care." he dropped the scroll and turned on his heal and fled. Sasuke dashed after him, but try as he might, he couldn't catch the other ninja.

Abandoned on the gravel road was a forbidden scroll, spattered with tears, with five punctures as if a claw had gripped it them to tight.

- - - To Be Continued- - -

Ah, in comes the angst . . . Gomen I feel awful. Anyone have any suggestions or ideas that they want me to put in?

Oh, and I'm sorry if this chapter isn't as great as some of the others, I got an almost concussion. I was sliding down the stair rail at my school, fell over backwards and hit my back and head on the stairs. Ow. So yeah, I can't lift my right arm higher than my shoulder and can't carry anything heavier than a book. And my neck is killing me from the whiplash. X.X. So yeah.

So yeah, if anyone wants the next chapter sooner, you can suck up to me by wishing me happy birthday since today's my birthday. And I'm not getting any presents since my x-mas presents was a laptop that I had to pay $350 for AND I get no b-day presents. T.T

wanders off to find more ice for aching neck, back and head

And also, for those of you who are wondering 'what the hell kinda name is Coli?' I shortened my little sisters name, because that's how my sister acts. She totally thinks I'm a freak, but she's alright. Like she found out that I write storys about (as she out it) "Guys making out" and is helping me keep it secret from our parents. But yeah. . . And Rin is what I shortened from a friend of hers name, since her friend is a btch. Not just to me, but to my sis to.


	11. A New Feeling

OH MY GOD! I TOPPED THE 500 MARK! I'M GOING TO DIE! I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOOO MUCH! I think that reviews have a secret healing power, because I suddenly fell, like, 500 better. So yeah, here's the next chappie. I'm just freaked that it won't be long enough to fill my goal. I really hope you like it. Love the angst!

- - -Recap- - -

Sasuke takes Naruto on a date, when Naruto figures out that Sasuke was a cat and takes it totally the wrong way.

- - - End Recap- - -

- - - Start Fic- - -

Kyuubi and Itachi were sitting on the couch, talking, about what they couldn't remember. Neither of them cared. They only remembered that in the middle of their conversation, Naruto burst through the door, his face bare of any emotion, hardly seen tear tracks making a pattern on his tanned face. As soon as he saw Kyuubi and Itachi, he put a smile on his face, so fake it almost hurt.

"Oh, hi guys, I didn't see you there." he said, his voice higher than it should be. Itachi and Kyuubi shared a worried look. Naruto was obviously hiding something and it had something to do with Sasuke. Naruto didn't even stay to hear their answers, he went right back to his hidden room and barricaded the door with the same jutsu he'd had to use on his house.

11111111111111111111111111111111

He sat down on his mountain of pillows. Sasuke knew, he knew everything. Everything that Naruto had worked for over 13 years to keep secret. It had been so long he hardly even remembered how it had started. He had only been three or four at the time. So young. . .

- - -Flashback- - -

The young boy effortlessly dodged the rotten food being tossed his way, which only enraged the villagers more. How dare this deamon not accept the punishment that was rightfully theirs to distribute. It had taken five or six men to finally catch and hold him, and in their blind fury they beat him till he could hardly stand and may have killed him if not for the Hokage's sudden arrival. Those who had participated had been banished from Konoha.

"Are you alright, Naruto?" The man had asked kindly as the small boy held ice over his swollen face. He felt rage building inside him. This was only a child, who knew no more of murder than a dust bunny. Yet the villagers saw him as the Kyuubi himself. He frowned, he knew that he could not erase so many years of hate, but there were things the child could do to make it better, ways of letting the villagers believe in his weakness, if not his innocence.

"Naruto?" he addressed that small boy , who felt the urge to turn to see who else the man might be talking to, for never in his life had he heard a voice not raised in anger or hate. He raised his shadowed eyes to meet those of the old man's. The man smiled kindly at him, radiating safety. Naruto gave the smile only a child can give and curled up in the mans lap with no further prompting. This was the most trust the Hokage had ever had placed in him, a child that knew nothing but hate believed him to be trustworthy, and never would he betray that trust.

"Young one, you have been through much." he said. The boy did not answer him, but merely curled his hand around the edge of the Hokage robe.

"Naruto, would you like help to be kept safe?" he asked. Silently, the boy nodded. He wondered if the boy even knew how to talk. "It will be hard, you must know that." he said. The boy nodded again, his deep sapphire eyes wide with hope and trust.

"How?" he asked, his voice so soft it made almost no sound in the almost silent room.

"The villagers fear your strength, the promise that you already show at such a young age. To make them stop, at least not be as hard, you must never let them see your power, for they are cowards, who fear anything stronger than them. You must put on a mask, a mask of happiness and weakness, and never take it off, until you are ready for them to know." he said. The boy nodded

"I can do that." he whispered.

"You should also act in a personality different from your own, so that if they try to hurt things that you care about, they will not matter as much to you. I'll let you decide what mask you wear." he said. The boy nodded again.

"And one last thing, small one."

"Yes?"

"One day, you must become the Hokage. Show these cowards that they are not god and that goodness can defeat hate with ease. Promise me that you day, you will wear the robes of the Hokage, and that your face will be up on the mountain with mine. Do you promise?" he asked. The boy nodded yet again.

"I promise."

"Good boy. Now let me tell you a secret, you must never tell anyone. It's about a man named Uzumaki. ."

- - -End flashback- - -

And he was well on his way to fulfilling that promise. Though the village still believed him a chuunin, the truth was that he was the most respected of the Anbu captains, and the current Hokage had taught him all she knew for being a Hokage and even left most of the behind the scenes work to him.

Naruto had made his mask brick by painful brick, pretending that his heart did not reach out to the only villager as lonely as him, pretending to love a girl that he had found obnoxious. And even though she was now much more likeable, his heart had always stayed with the youngest Uchiha.

He snorted. And now Sasuke knew it. He knew everything. And he would never want to talk to Naruto again. Why he had taken Naruto on a date was beyond the him, but one could never fathom the mind of an Uchiha.

But the real question was, how the hell had Sasuke gotten his hands on that scroll? Naruto had been given responsibility of keeping the scrolls, as Tsunade had figured that it would be the last place that anyone would expect them and therefore the safest.

Naruto closed his eyes. He had long since mastered separating his emotions from his thinking, but those walls had started to crumble. He mentally rebuilt them, he would need to think about this with no emotions to cloud his mind. He entered the safe place that he had created mentally. It was like a glade in his mind, where no emotions could penetrate.

He settled himself crossed legged in the soft grass, hearing only the gentle _shush_ of the trees and the splashes of the creek. He sent his mind back, he had loaned that scroll out recently. He searched his memory. He had loaned it to Kyuubi, right after he had mastered the jutsu that had givin the fox his physical form. Kyuubi had asked to borrow it, and when Naruto had asked why, Kyuubi had giving a vague answer that was no help. He had let it slid in the excitement of having a real person in his house. He was pretty sure that Kyuubi was the first person that Naruto'd had in his house. Well, the first person that he wanted to be in his house anyway. Vandals didn't count.

Then he had just forgotten about it. Which was so unlike him. He paused. Something had just occurred to him. . . That week, the week after he had givin Kyuubi the scroll, he had been sleeping a lot that week. And only when Kyuubi was back in Narutos mind. Naruto gasped. He hadn't. But there was nothing else that it could be. Kyuubi had messed with his memories. And this wasn't just a theory of his. Kyuubi had done it before. There were some memories that Kyuubi had decided that were too mentally damaging to his host and he had removed them, where they could only be accessed if Naruto looked for them.

So, Kyuubi had messed with his memory. But why. Unless. Unless Kyuubi had known about Sasukes plan. Unless he had planned it. That was the only way Sasuke could have gotten his hands on that scroll. There was no way Sasuke could have defeated Kyuubi in a fight and taken the scroll unless Kyuubi wanted him to have it. So Sasuke couldn't have had horrible motives, Naruto knew that Kyuubi would never do anything to hurt him. Not intentionally.

His eyes snapped open, he couldn't deal with this. Not now. He needed a mission. He had to get his mind off of this. He made the jutsu for transportation in his head, and the next second he was in the Hokage office. The Hokage was asleep on her desk.

"Baa-chan!" he said, snapping his hands down by her head. She shot up.

"I was working Shizune!" she said automatically. Naruto didn't laugh. "Oh, it's you." she said. "What do you want?"

"A mission. A long one, at least three months. Meaning do you have any missions that would take an ordinary person, I dunno, a year?" he asked as she sat back down, a sigh escaping her.

"Not this again Naruto." she sounded weary. "I told you last time that I'd only give you three missions a week."

"I don't care. Just get me the hell out of this village." he snapped. Realization dawned on her face.

"I knew it was a bad idea." she muttered, knowing he wouldn't hear her. Had he had normal hearing. But after having Kyuubi living in his body for 17 years, he had developed the advanced senses of the kitsune.

"What was a bad idea?" he asked suspiciously. Then it hit him. "You knew too! That's why you were so unconcerned about Sasuke. You knew too!" he yelled "Does everyone in Konoha know? Was this all some big conspiracy?"

"Naruto. . ."

"No, I don't want your excuses!" he shouted, not noticing her leafing through the papers that had served as her pillow.

"Naruto." she said

"I don't care just give me the d-" she thrust a piece of paper into his hands. He blinked.

"Whats this?" he asked. She smirked.

"A mission to the village hidden in the light."

"Oh?"

111111111111111111111111111

"What did you do, Uchiha?" Kyuubi snarled, his face a mask of fury. Sasuke looked up, startled.

"Huh?"

"What did you do to Naruto?"

"Nothing."

"Bullshit! He was crying! I can't even remember the last time that he cried!"

"He was. . .what? Why?"

"You tell me, Uchiha. I know that you had something to do with it."

"Well, I think I might know some of why. . . But I don't understand his reaction."

"Tell me what happened. Don't leave anything out." Kyuubi said, plopping down cross-legged in one of the many chairs that made up Sasuke's family room, where the Uchiha had been wondering himself, what the hell had happened. He told Kyuubi everything, from his evil fangirl, to his realization of love to Naruto finding the scroll. When he had finished, Kyuubi was shaking his head, looking worried.

"This is worse than I thought. . ." he said. Sasuke looked confused and tilted his head to prompt the kitsune to continue.

"Couldn't you just talk to him about it?" he asked. Kyuubi shook his head.

"No, I doubt that he'll talk to me."

"Why?"

"Because, kiddo, he's smarter than you are. He'll have figured it out by now."

"Figured what out?"

"Jeez, you really are dense. . . I planned this."

"You WHAT?"

"I planned it, you getting the scroll, turning into a cat, finding out about Naruto." Kyuubi said, as though talking to an infant. Sasuke scowled, but was to curious to be truly angry.

"Why?"

"Because, I knew that sooner or later, it would drive the kit crazy. Being so in love, and have that person see you as nothing more than an idiot. It's more than even he can handle."

"Why?"

"Sasuke, someone needed to know, to see the real him. Even if you never found out how he really felt, Naruto needed someone that he cared about to know the true him, to have someone that he could truly relax around. And you were the perfect target."

"Why?"

"Because you're Naruto's precious thing. The thing that he would do anything to protect. And." he smirked. "You would be the easiest to trap."

"What!"

"Well, I knew about your quest for power, and so I transformed into one of your ninja pals, or whatever, and let you overhear me talking about this wonderful forbidden scroll with unlimited power and just happened to be located in this nice convenient little cave with hardly any protection."

"That was _you_!" he demanded.

"Yup!" Kyuubi smirked. From the look on Sasuke's face, Kyuubis life was in danger. So he did the only thing he could do. He changed the subject. "But, I'm sure that you want to know why Naruto reacted the way that he did." Kyuubi asked, which made Sasuke calm down almost instantly.

"Yeah. . .?"

"Well, he has trust issues, especially where your concerned."

"Me, why me?" Sasuke asked, a bit offended. Kyuubi raised an eyebrow at him.

"Do you even need to ask that?" he asked. Sasuke sighed.

"No, I suppose you don't. But that still doesn't explain his strong reaction."

"It's fairly simple. He thinks that for some reason, you wanted to hurt him, so you went to the trouble to spy on him, just so that you could use this information against him." Kyuubi concluded. Sasuke didn't think that this was simple at all, but there were more important things to worry about. Like Naruto. Kyuubi had said that the blonde had been crying.

"Where would he be?" Sasuke asked.

"Huh?"

"Naruto. Where would he be?"

"Uh, no telling. Last time that he got really upset, he went the Hokage for missions, until he was doing almost two a day."

"What, when was this?" Sasuke asked, shocked.

"Right after you tried to leave."

"Oh. How come I didn't notice, if he did so many missions, how come he was always around? In fact, for all the missions he apparently has, I can't even remember a day that he wasn't around." Sasuke said, only to see Kyuubi shaking his head sadly.

"That wasn't him, Sasuke, almost half the time, it was a clone."

"Huh? But Sakura always hits him, and I would have noticed if he suddenly disappeared in smoke."

"Special clones."

"So, you mean, all this time?" Sasuke almost whispered. Kyuubi nodded.

"I think that's what hurt the most, that no one ever noticed."

"But you said he used to do two missions a day, what does he do now?"

"After about a week of this, Tsunade restricted him to three missions a week, but he usually does at least five."

"Oh. . .So he would have gone on a mission?" Sasuke asked. The kitsune nodded. "Any ideas where?" The kitsune shook his head. "Will the Hokage know?" The kitsune nodded. "Alright. I'm going after him!" Sasuke said resolutely. Kyuubi grinned.

"Good luck." he said. Sasuke nodded and made the jutsu for transportation into the Hokage office. Nothing happened. He tried again. Nothing.

"What the hell!" he yelled. Kyuubi smirked.

"Oh, did I not mention, Naruto made it so that only he and the Hokage can enter the Hokage office that way, to prevent attacks and all that."

"Damn it! Can't that dobe make anything easy?" he growled, grabbing a coat and heading towards the door. Right as he was waling out, Kyuubis voice stopped him.

"Sasuke.'

"Yeah"

"Make him happy. He deserves it."

1111111111111111111111111

"Hokage-sama. Uchiha-san is here to see you." said the guard at the door, waking the Hokage up from her nap.

"Which one?" she murmured sleepily. The man gave her a strange look.

"The only one there is, Hokage-sama." He said. She nodded, so it was Sasuke. Great. Now she could give him a piece of her mind. Sasuke waited until the man had closed the door before speaking.

"Hokage-sama, where is Naruto?" he asked. She blinked. That was unexpected. . .She sighed. Should she tell him, when there was a chance that he could hurt that brat any more. She compromised.

"Why do you want to know?" She asked.

"I want to talk to him."

"Oh, now you want to talk to him?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I want to make things right again."

"Again? Again, Uchiha? Were they ever 'right' as you put it." Her voice rang with bitterness for the things that her 'little brother'd had to endure, some of which came from the very boy in front of her.

"Dammit! Don't play games with me!" Sasuke yelled, grabbing her shirt, a remarkable feat in itself, giving the clothes, or lack thereof, that she wore.

"Alright, Uchiha. No games. If you want to know where Naruto is, sit down and tell me what you'll do when you find him. If I like what I hear, I'll tell you where I sent him, then you don't deserve to find him." she smirked. "And if you want to impress me, I suggest letting go of my shirt."

Sasuke glared at her, before releasing her and sitting down in the chair across from her desk.

"Why should I tell you anything?" he asked, but it had no venom. The Hokage smirked.

"You want to know where Naruto went, don't you?"

". . . yeah. . ." Sasuke sulked.

"So, speak."

Sasuke couldn't shake the feeling that the Hokage was having way to fun with this.

"I just want to talk to him. I want to apologize for whatever the hell thinks I did. Good enough for you?" he snarled. She shrugged,

"Not impressive, but, as you're an Uchiha and don't talk anyway, I'll make an exception. And it's not normally in my nature to base my decisions on a family name, but since that brat likes you so much, I think I'll give you a chance." She said, before her face and voice hardened. "But if you hurt him, I'll strip you of all titles you may have earned and ship you back to the academy."

"I don't plan on hurting anyone."

"Good, now, you want to know where the idiot went? Let me tell you. . ."

1111111111111111111111111111111111111

Naruto, however, wasn't sitting around explaining anything. He was working hard on his mission. Sort of. He had been givin a mission to infiltrate several hidden villages, as Tsunade had known from experience that only doing one village would not last him very long at all. She didn't know how, but Naruto had ways of getting powerful people to say the things he wanted to hear. Judging by the things she had seen him come back wearing, she wasn't sure that she wanted to know.

This time, however, he had opted for a less direct route, in fact, just now, he was currently sitting around doing a pastime better suited to Sasuke. Angsting. Despite what might have appeared evident from his usual grin, he was quite good at it. Maybe it came from knowing someone who had mastered angsting at the age of seven, maybe it had always been behind his mask. Maybe he was just a natural.

But whatever the reason, he was damn good at it. He even had the traditional brooding pose down. However, after a mere hour or so of brooding, he was very rudely interrupted by the very person that he had just angsting about. Uchiha Sasuke.

"Naruto." Sasuke said, jerking Naruto out of his brood. He had been searching al over this stupid village for the blonde, and he finds him practically mirroring Sasuke's own pose in the middle of a strange forest. The blonde in question looked up at the sound of his name, his eyes landing almost t once on Sasuke.

"Oh, hi, Sasuke."

"Hi? Is that all? And why are you even here?" Sasuke demanded. Naruto gave an attempt at a smirk.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that? Never mind, I know why. That old lady who has the nerve to call herself Hokage told you didn't she?" At Sasuke's nod, he growled "I should have known not to trust her, she can't keep a secret any longer than she can keep her money.

He looked up at Sasuke, fixing him with a stern eye. "Then why did you come after me? Wait, let me guess. You wanted to embarrass me more? Make fun of me? What?"

"That's not-"

"Or did you just want to see me suffer? Knowing that you're going to hate me now, and just prolonging the torture?"

"I don-"

"Or are you going to explain why you lied to me, lived in my freaking house for a whole FREAKING week, and never even thought to mention that you were who you were as I poured my fucking soul out to you?"

"I coul-"

"Well, whatever Sasuke, I don't even care any more, you can beat me up if you want, tell everyone in Konoha that I'm even more fucked up then they thought. That-"

Sasuke, who had been getting fed up with Narutos endless prattle, had covered the blondes mouth with the nearest thing at hand, his own mouth. Thus resulting in Sasuke's lips firmly covering Naruto's putting an instant stop to the blondes rant.

He was surprised at how soft Naruto's lips were, softer than silk. . . He tilted his head to the side so that their lips moved together, sending shivers down his spine. However, he knew that he should explain himself to Naruto before they got involved in some serious snogging, but god it felt so _right_.

He reluctantly pulled away, Naruto was staring at him with a slightly dazed expression, looking shocked. His hand slowly moved up to touch his lips.

"You. . . You just. . ."

"Yes. I did. Now that I have your attention, will you please let me get out more than two words?" Sasuke asked softly. Naruto nodded, still looking dazed.

"Alright. First of all, I didn't _try_ to do anything. I just heard these people talking about this scroll, and where it was and I grabbed it. When I tried the first jutsu, next thing I know, I' a cat and you're taking me into your house. Which by the way, also wasn't my fault. If you remember correctly, I had been hiding and you had dragged me out of that bush and held me hostage until we got to your house."

". . .Oh, right. You still could have told me though."

"At first? No I couldn't have. I still thought that you would make fun of me for just being turned into a cat, and needing your help would damage my pride. Later? I guess I could have told you, but I wanted to know more about you." Sasuke said. Naruto smiled bitterly.

"I guess you did that."

"Yeah. I guess I did. Bur I learned a lot about myself too."

"Oh, really, like what?"

"I, think I might like you too."

"What? I thought you hated me!"

"Naruto, did that look like hate to you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. Naruto blushed slightly.

". . .No. . ."

"Good, because, I want to do that again, but I don't want you to get the wrong idea." Sasukes face was moving closer and closer to Naruto's. Naruto was turning pinker and pinker. He stopped with his face an half an inch from Naruto's, letting the blondes quickened breath rush over his lips.

Naruto gave a shuddering gasp, Sasukes scent almost overwhelming him.

"I won't get the wrong idea." he whispered, before moving so that his lips touched Sasukes. It started as an innocent kiss, they're lips just touching, until Naruto realized that this was real and pulled Sasuke closer to him, marveling at how well they fit together, like two pieces of the same whole.

Naruto's tongue slowly left his mouth, brushing against Sasuke's lips. Sasuke gasped, how had he not noticed how perfect Naruto was? And opened his mouth, Naruto's tongue sliding in, meeting him, sending shockwaves down both of their backs.

Sasuke heard a moan, and wondered vaguely if it was his or Narutos, but it didn't matter, not when Naruto was running his hands through his hair, and over the back of his neck, and he could feel the muscles of Naruto's back through the shirt, and oh god if Naruto kept doing that with his tongue, he was going to pass out.

Eventually, however, they had o pull away for air. Naruto and Sasuke stared at each other, both of them flushed, Sasuke with his hair looking even spikier in the back.

"So, are sure you're not getting the wrong impression?" he joked. Naruto grinned at him, the sift, sweet grin that he had fallen in love with, an he felt his knees weaken slightly.

"Oh, I'm not really sure, I should try that again, shouldn't I?" and he did.

- - - To Be Continued- - -

So how was that? Good? No, it's not over yet, not even close. Yay! Review! Oh, and please, people, leave your e-mail,or log in, or something. Oh, and I really really love suggestions, and if anyone wants to IM me, it's HeraldMage4evr, so yeah, do that! And again, everyone thank my beta, Kai19!


	12. A New Boyfriend

So many reviews dazed do I deserve all these? tear Um, the updates might start coming a bit slower, because I hadn't planned much farther than that. I know what I want to do later, I just don't know how to get there. T.T

Oh, and no, Sasuke and Naruto didn't do anything other than kissing. Just because they're teenagers doesn't mean they're going to jump each other at the first opportunity. I _am_ trying to establish that this is not a relationship based purely on sex and that would completely fall apart if they went at it like rabbits five minutes after their first kiss. So there.

- - -Recap - - -

Sasuke kisses Naruto, and then they engage in a snog fest (isn't that a fun word)

- - -End Recap- - -

They were still in the forest clearing, now lying on the forest floor, Naruto with his head on Sasuke's clothed chest, Sasuke fiddling idly with the blondes hair. Neither of them had said anything in a while, they simply enjoyed one another's presence. Suddenly Naruto leaped up, his face horrified.

"My mission!" he yelled, getting ready to run from the clearing, before Sasuke grabbed his wrist and tugged him back down.

"Uh, yeah, about that. . ." Sasuke said a bit sheepishly. "The Hokage had something that she wanted me to tell you."

Naruto looked him suspiciously. "And what would that be?" he asked, his brow raised.

"Um, she said that," his face gained the look he wore when quoting something directly "That 'there is no actual mission, Naruto just needed time to calm down'"

"She did WHAT?"

12121212121212121212121212

"Do you think they're okay?" Kyuubi asked worriedly. Itachi sighed, this was about the fifth time that Kyuubi had asked him that, and his pacing was starting to wear groves in the hard wood floor.

"Yes, Kyuubi-kun, I'm sure they're fine. I'm sure that my brother has told him everything by now." he said with his usual calm. Kyuubi's worried look dissolved for a moment, replaced by a mischievous look that fit him perfectly. It was amplified by that fact that his ears (which he had returned) were perking up from their drooped state. His plush tail was swishing back and forth, as it did when he was planning something.

"You know, Itachi-kun, what does this make us?"

"Um, what?"

"Well, if you're brother and my, well, I don't really know what Naruto is, I guess my friend are now snogging each other, what does that make us?"

"Well, I'm not sure that we'd be anything else, since you and Naruto aren't related by blood."

"Oh? I thought that it would make us a bit. . . Closer. . ." he said, his eyes gleaming with mischief. And they were very close eyes to. Itachi resisted the urge to move backwards, that would be admitting defeat.

"Closer?" he asked, relieved that his voice came out sounding mostly normal.

"Yes." Kyuubi replied jovially. "I think that I should be able to call you just Itachi, with no suffix. And you should do the same!" his grin was infecting, causing Itachi's mouth to tilt in response. He had never heard his name said like that. He loved the way Kyuubi pronounced it. He wondered of Kyuubis name would feel any different in it's less formal form.

"Alright, Kyuubi." he replied easily, a bit surprised at how smoothly the name rolled off his tongue, like it had been made for him to say it. He also thought he saw something shift in the Kitsune's eyes. He was vaguely aware that aforementioned kitsune seemed to be moving closer, or was that him?

"KYUUBI!" The door burst open, reveling Naruto, who looked, well, like Naruto. He looked almost mad, but not quite. The two of them sprang apart, a motion that was ignored, but not unnoticed by the blonde in the doorway.

"You planned it! Didn't you! You gave Sasuke that scroll? Didn't you?" he asked. Kyuubi nodded, knowing that there was no way to avoid it. Naruto moved closer, and Kyuubi flinched, waiting to be hit. But instead the blonde suddenly gave him a brief hug "Thanks." he said, and backed away.

Kyuubi blinked. So did Itachi. "So I'm going to assume that it went well?" the older Uchiha asked, though it was obvious from the almost blinding smile that it had.

"Well, I think it went well, but that's just me." came another voice from the door way and they all looked up to see Sasuke standing there, his arms crossed over his chest, leaning coolly against the wall.

"Oh?" Kyuubi asked, his curious side getting the better of him "What happened?"

Sasuke smirked and walked over to Naruto, wrapping his arms around the boys waist and resting his head among the blonde locks. "Nothing much." he said "We talked."

Naruto smirked "Among other things." he added.

"Mn." Sasuke agreed. Kyuubi and Itachi exchanged a look before both of them grinned. Well, Kyuubi grinned, Itachi just gave a sort of knowing smirk.

"What sort of other things?" they asked in unison.

"Oh, you know, things." Naruto replied. "What about you two? Been making any more plots at my expense again?"

"Oh, I don't think that it was all bad, now was it Naruto?" Kyuubi asked, nodding his head at the Uchiha who was still leaning on Naruto. Naruto looked up at the said Uchiha and grinned.

"No, it definitely wasn't all bad." he said, his eyes locked with Sasuke's. Sasuke nodded as well.

"I liked pretty much all of it." he agreed, his mind automatically flashing back to the thought of Naruto in that dress, and leaned his head down so that their lips touched.

Kyuubi and Itachi figured that it would be as good a time as any to back out.

121212121212121212121212

"Hey, Sasuke?"

"Yeah?"

"Who do you think we should tell?" Naruto asked, looking at the youngest Uchiha, who he was sitting net to on the couch.

"Tell?"

"You know, about us.'

"Well, I don't think that anyone would understand since you still hide behind a mask, and I don't want the villagers to bother you any more. So how 'bout we wait, alright?" Sasuke asked softly.

"Alright." Naruto said cheerfully. As long as he was with Sasuke, it didn't matter. Nothing else really mattered. There were a few more minutes of silence, before

"Hey, Sasuke?"

"Yes?"

"What do you think about your brother and Kyuubi?"

"What about them?"

"Well, they obviously like each other."

". . . If you say so, dobe."

"Sasuke! They do!"

"Naruto, you do realize who you're talking about? It's my brother. _Itachi_. He had no feelings. He's like, asexual."

"Highly doubtful, since I saw the way he was looking at Kyuubi."

"Alright, fine, lets pretend you're right and Itachi does like Kyuubi, what makes you think that Kyuubi feels the same?"

"You're kidding me right? The guy lives in my head, you think I don't know these things. And let me tell you, he's as bad as Ero-sennin. Worse, even, because he's been, as he puts it 'been sexually repressed in the body of a teenager who wouldn't know sex if it hit on him.' because, of course, the stupid fox can't say _hit him_, no he was to say hit _on_ him."

". . .right." Sasuke said. Then it clicked "Wait, you mean?"

"Yes. That perverted fox, before he could get out of my body, ranted on and on about your brother, including images about what he would _do_ to your brother, and tried to take over my body so that he _could_ do these things to your brother. But now that he's gotten to know him, I think he really likes him, not just would really like to screw him."

"Please Naruto! This is my brother we're talking about!"

"So, he thought in _my _head."

"Fair point. So what the hell do you want to do about it?"

"Anything that will get the damn kitsune to shut up. And since I think that multiple people would abject of we just got rid of the problem, I say that we get them together."

". . .And why should I do that?"

"Sasuke, he turned you into a _cat_." Naruto said, as though that said everything. Sasukes face suddenly got determined.

"Alright, what do you want to do."

"Nothing big, I have a life you know."

"Could have fooled me." Sasuke muttered. Naruto hit him.

"Hey! Anyway, nothing big, just little stuff, like ditching them in the middle of dinner and such."

"And how would I be involved in that plan, exactly?" Sasuke raised an eye brow questionably. Naruto's grin flickered somewhat.

"Oh. I just sort of assumed, that you would want to, um, stay for dinner. But if you don't want it's fine, I really don'-"

"Naruto, calm down. I'll stay. I'd like to try some food that you actually cooked for me, knowing that it was me and not a cat." He smiled down at Naruto, who met his eyes and grinned back, nodding.

12121212121212121212121212121212

"My god Naruto! This is fantastic!" Kyuubi said, presenting everyone with a lovely view of the food in his mouth. Naruto grinned happily.

"Thanks. What do you guys think?" he asked the two Uchiha, who were both chewing very slowly. Sasuke swallowed all of what was in his mouth almost at once in his haste to answer.

"It's great." he smiled. Itachi nodded, not bothering to answer. He got the feeling that Naruto only really cared what Sasuke thought. After Naruto and Sasuke had finished, a bit faster than the ever hungry fox and Itachi, Naruto stood up, his plate in hand.

"I'm going to go clean up, come on Sasuke." he said cheerfully. Sasuke nodded and followed, carrying his own plate. When they reached the kitchen, Naruto dumped his plate in the sink and a clone appeared next to him and began to clean. Sasuke raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything as Naruto crept back to the door and peering in where Kyuubi and Itachi were sitting.

"Hey, Itachi, when you're not with the Akatsuki, where do you go?" Kyuubi asked. Itachi looked up, from his plate.

"Huh?" he asked. Kyuubi rolled his eyes.

"When you aren't terrorizing the innocent pedestrians, where do you go? Do you just stay in a hotel, or what?"

"Oh, I usually just wander off by myself. The Akatsuki don't travel in groups and it never really matters what I do. I only spy when I meet the others, other than that I'm on my own, since I got rid of Kisame."

"Alright, how 'bout you just stay here while you're just hanging around?" Kyuubi asked, sounding calm and casual, But Naruto could tell that he was nervous.

"You mean, like, move in here?" Itachi asked, his eyes wide. Kyuubi nodded, his face a but red, before he suddenly began shoveling food in his mouth.

"You know, this is really great. We need to make Sasuke stay here more often, Naruto never cooked this good for me, not even when I first got my body back."

"Yes."

"What?"

"Yes, I'll move in here."

"Really!" Kyuubi practically squealed. Itachi nodded. Kyuubi stood up, and glomped him, knocking both of them off their chairs. Naruto stifled a giggle as Itachi turned a shade of pink he had never seen before.

12121212121212121212121212

The loud rings of Narutos phone echoed through the apartment. Not even thinking about what he was doing, Sasuke picked up the phone.

"Hullo?" he asked.

"Uchiha?" came the voice of the Hokage. "Oh well, I'm sure that I even want to know. Where's Naruto?"

"Bathroom, I think."

"Oh well, when he gets out, tell him to get his ass down here, there's trouble."

"Like what."

"That's his business, but you can come to, if it's alright with him." The phone line went dead. At that exact moment, Naruto walked in.

"Who was it?" he asked, smiling at Sasuke.

"The Hokage, she says get down there fast." The smile dropped from Naruto's face.

"Oh, alright. You want to come?"

"Sure."

"Alright, I've led a squad with you in it before, but that time you didn't know it was me."

"You, I , what?"

"Oh, didn't I tell you, I'm the white wolf Anbu." he said, before grabbing Sasuke and both of them disappeared. (A/N: If the Naruto being the White Wolf idea has been done, I'm really sorry, but there weren't any other animals). Sasuke and Naruto appeared before the Hokage desk.

"Alright Tsunade-baachan, I'm here, what do you need?"

"You two have to go on a mission to The Lighting Village."

"Again. Wait, two?"

"It's actually a six man mission, but since it's you, and Uchiha, I'll only send you two."

"Alright. What do we have to do?" Naruto asked, his voice business like. Sasuke was still in shock. The White Wolf was Naruto. The hero of the village who everyone in Konoha loved and everyone from other villager feared, the one the called Nightblade, for the silent way he go creeping out of darkness and to darkness then return. He left no trace in passing, as if all who watched were blind, the night blade fighting, night blades rending, then into darkness once more blending, leaving only dead behind.

And he had, indeed, served missions under him. He had never guessed, never even suspected.

"Sasuke?" Naruto asked, waving his hand in front of Sasuke's face. Sasuke turned to look at him and was startled to see the mask that he already wore. "Come on." Naruto said softy. Sasuke nodded, he wouldn't be surprised by anything he saw that night, he had seen Naruto fight before.

1212121212121212121212

They returned from the mission two hours later, their captive in tow, the mission had been to capture a rouge nin who had been hiding in that village. Despite Sasukes decision to remain unsurprised, he had failed.

"How did you do that?" he asked Naruto, shocked.

"Practice, with a little help from my bloodlines." Naruto had said, stretching. Sasuke had almost stopped in the middle of the road.

"You have bloodlines?" he asked. Naruto turned around to face him.

"Of course I do, don't most ninja's?"

"I just."

"You thought that since I didn't have a family, I would have bloodlines?"

"Well. . ."

"It's alright, I thought the same thing actually, but Kyuu helped me."

"Oh. . ." Sasuke trailed off, not knowing what else to say.

"Hey, Sasuke. You want to come to my house tomorrow and train?" Naruto asked softly. Sasuke glanced over at him and could see that Naruto was mentally willing him to accept.

"Sure." he said, smiling a bit. "I'll drop by around 3."

"Alright." Naruto grinned at him. Sasuke's own smile widened a bit more and he bent over to place a soft kiss on Naruto's mouth.

"See you tomorrow, dobe." he said, walking into his own house, leaving Naruto standing in his doorway, a silly smile on his face, one hand touching his lips.

- - - To Be Continued- - -

Sorry that it was short, I wanted to get it up by today and couldn't think of what to put. I hope the next will get longer, but it prolly it. It was just to soon to out anything god in. Sorry of this chapter sucks, I'm exhausted. X.X See you next xhappie. If you review, there will be more mindless fluff next chapter.

Also, sorry to my beta, I was in a huge hurry and didn't have time to send it to you. But if you beta it now, I'll repost it. Again, gomen.


	13. A New Club

Hullo all, apparently, you guys didn't think the last chappie sucked. . . Oh well, I don't mind, I really love your reviews.

- - - Recap - - -

Um, they got together, time has passed, because I don't want to write every single day, time has to pass, otherwise their life will be boring, glob of excitement, then more boring.

- - - End Recap - - -

- - -Start Fic- - -

"Hey, Itachi?"

"Yeah?"

"How much do you think that we could get for these?" Kyuubi asked, his face the picture of mischief. Itachi looked at him.

"I dunno, since they're the first ones, I'd say at least fifty dollars, a piece."

"Really? I was thinking seventy five."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, girls will pay a lot for this kinda stuff. We are holding pure gold my friend." Kyuubi said, waving the hand holding aforementioned gold around. This revealed a pile of pictures of Sasuke and Naruto making out. Now, why were Kyuubi and Itachi debating how much girls would pay to get their hands on digitized hotness you may ask?

It all started a few days ago.

- - -Flashback- - - (A few days ago)

"_Come on Naruto, I already know. I want to really spar, not feel like I'm beating you up." Sasuke complained as he swung a fist at the blonde. _

"_Fine, you want me to try?" Naruto asked. Then, suddenly, Naruto was behind him. He spun around just in time to see a golden lock disappear. The next thing Sasuke knew, he was lying on his back, Naruto straddling him, a kunai pressed to his throat. _

"_Checkmate." he purred softly. Sasuke did his best to remain calm and dignified, despite being pressed to the ground. He actually managed to do a fairly good job at it to. "So," Naruto whispered, his breath ghosting Sasuke's ear. "Do I get a gold star?" _

_Naruto's lips moved across Sasuke's face and gently touched his mouth. Sasuke didn't think that this merited a reply, so he took the opportunity to lean forward and capture Naruto's lips in a searing kiss._

_Despite that it was a very **very** nice kiss, they still should have heard the pounding that was the sound of hundreds of fangirls, who had heard from an unmentioned yet reliable source that Uchiha Sasuke had been seen heading that way. _

_When the branches of the clearing were all pushed to the side, a dead silence fell over the clearing, with the exception of the gentle smack their lips made as they parted. Naruto looked up uncertainly, eyeing the fangirls warily. _

"_Um, hi?" he tried. Luckily for him, the fangirls had matured as well, and instead of being driven to homicidal rage by the sight of the two legendary rivals snogging, as they had been when they were all eleven, they were instead driven to create a new and almost more horrifying fan club. The fan club dedicated entirely to the worship and protection of SasuNaru_

- - - End Flashback- - -

Since then, the progress these fangirls had made in the village could only be described as remarkable. In fact, they had taken it upon their selves, despite Naruto and Sasuke's kind reassurance that it was really not necessary, and their less kind reassurance that it really was not **_wanted_**, they continued. In a mild manner of speaking.

To be more frank, they had built an entire shop dedicated to Sasuke and Naruto, which had previously been a Sasuke shop, and had sold plushies of Sasuke, and fake ID cards with Mrs. Uchiha on them. Now the store was filled with Naruto dolls that sat right next to, and sometimes on top of, the Sasuke plushies. They were also paying big money to anyone who could get pictures of the two, and all the resident artist had abandoned all previous projects, and begun to draw the first fanart.

Which was why Itachi and Kyuubi were debating the price they could get for their pictures, as none of the fangirls had been able to get any, these would be the first actual picture in Konoha, with the exception of the one girl who had brought a camera while chasing Sasuke, and had managed to get a picture of the forest scene, although the view was somewhat obscured by the red-head that had been in front of the camera at the time.

"How 'bout we just take these pictures down the shop and see how much we get, hm?" Kyuubi suggested after a bit. That agreed upon, Itachi donned his genjutsu's like he had his cloak, and Kyuubi's ears and tail absorbed them selves into his body.

The girl who had greeted them at the door, clearly wondering why two grown men were at her yaoi shop. When Kyuubi held up a folder labelled 'pictures' she had nodded, her face lighting up with glee. She had gestured for them to follow her, leading them through a room filled with books, for that was what the store was to all outward appearances, unless one went through to the back room, guarded by an orange bead 'door' that had been black. This back room was painted dark blue as a souvenir from its days as a Sasuke shop.

She led them through this, past the eyes of the fangirls who were watching the with curious eyes, through a part of the wall that apparently doubled as a door, to another room, this one plain, looking the same as any corporal office.

The girl, Hikaru, sat down at the desk, her deep green hair hidden in a bandana.

"Now, I hear that you two have something for me?" she asked calmly, as if she did this everyday, which she actually might. In reply, Kyuubi took the envelope and spread picture on her desk. Hikaru's eyes widened, as did her grin.

"I see." was all she said as she contemplated the picture thoughtfully. "How much?"

"One hundred." Kyuubi said

"Each." Itachi added. Hikaru's eyes gained a new level of respect.

"Twenty five." she countered. They had been prepared for this that was the reason they had named such a high price.

"Eighty."

"Thirty."

"Seventy-five."

"Forty."

"Sixty five."

"Fifty."

"Fine." They shook on it; Hikaru put the picture in their envelope and quickly unlocked a safe, placing the envelope inside. Kyuubi and Itachi's eyes widened at the vast amounts of locks placed on the safe. She saw their look and grinned.

"You can never be to careful." she carefully counted out the money and handed half to each of them. "Nice doing business with you two."

13131313131313131313131313

"You know, we probably shouldn't have done that."

"Done what?"

"Sold pictures of Naruto-kun and Sasuke to rabid yaoi fangirls."

"I suppose. Why? Do you feel guilty?"

". . . no."

"Me neither. Well, I did, then I remembered how much money we had made."

"Yeah, same. The only thing I'm worried about the two of them finding out." Itachi said, before they both blanched in fear. Despite the fact that Kyuubi was the most powerful deamons and Itachi may be the most feared Akatsuki member (whatever the reason) they were still terrified of the thought of what the couple would do to them if they ever found out that they had been sold out to the fangirls of Konoha. And whatever fangirls of other villages that would come.

131313131313131313

Even though Sakura hadn't been a member of the fangirls that had found them snogging, it was inevitable that she find out. She had, after all, known Naruto for six years (the years before the had been team-mates didn't count) and stalked Sasuke for 5, (she had stalked him for two years prior to being on his team, then givin up three years later. )

She had seen the way that they had acted around each other for the past two and a half weeks and had finally confronted them on it.

"You two are _dating_?" she shrieked, with the same shrillness that the two of them had thought, and hoped, were lost with her fangirl days.

"Um, yes?" Naruto said hesitantly, as Sakura loomed over the two of them, her eyes glowing. She opened her mouth and Sasuke and Naruto flinched a bit, thinking that she was going to release inner Sakura.

"That. Is." they inched back "So Great! Finally!" she squealed, before throwing her arms around the two in front of her. "So Sasuke, when did you figure it out, Naruto has liked you for ages!"

"Huh?" Naruto asked, looking at her in shock "You knew?"

"Yes, of course I knew. A girl knows these things." She said with pride. Naruto repressed a snort; she still hadn't figured out that he had strength equal to or greater than an Anbu. Sasuke elbowed him, as he saw no reason that he should be punished if Naruto pissed Sakura off.

But if Sakura, who had known them for most of their life, reacted like this, how terrifying would the fangirls be? They both blanched in terror. Fangirls were among the most terrifying sub-species known to men. Especially hot, gay men.

If only is could have stayed that fangirls were the only thing they had to fear.

1313131313131313131313131313

"Hokage-sama! The village is under attack!" The Anbu burst into Tsunade's office. He sweat dropped when he saw the Hokage jerk up, ink on one side of her face, spelling out the new law she was supposed to be passing.

Tsunade, like the true leader she was, leaped to control the situation. "Huh?"

The Anbu who were waiting outside the door fell over. Some Hokage. . . Why had they chosen her again? Oh right, because she was one of the three legendaries. They really had to rethink this 'picking your legends' thing, one of their legends was a huge perv, the other a homicidal lunatic and the third was. They glanced at the blonde by the desk, _her_.

They were in such trouble. They were all going to die. This was the most powerful ninja that they had. And Sound had Orochimaru, whose face was ink free. Not to mention all their other super powerful ninja.

"Orochimaru is here, attacking!"

"He's WHAT!"

131313131313131313

_Ring Ring_

"Whats that?"

"_Ring Ring_

"Naruto is that your phone?"

"Naruto has a _phone_?"

_RING RING_

"Oh, yeah, now that you mention it. . ." Naruto said, reaching into a fluffy orange pocket and pulling out a white razor phone. Sakura's mouth dropped open; she had been trying to get her hands on one of those for ages.

"WHAT?" Naruto yelled, causing both of his former team mates to wince, used to as they were to his yells. He closed his phone.

"Problem. Orochimaru's here."

"He, what, wait, how come you're the first to know?" Sakura demanded. Naruto looked sheepish.

"Sakura, I haven't been exactly honest with you." Naruto said, scratching his head in his trademark nervous gesture. Sakura tapped her foot, her arms crossed threateningly over her chest.

"Oh?" she said, speaking volumes in one word.

"Yeah, you see, I'm the White wolf Anbu. And since we have a crisis on our hands, I got to go. Bye." The next second, Naruto was wearing an Anbu costume, complete with mask, and Itachi and Kyuubi were at his side.

"Who! Wha? Sasuke, he looks just like you!" Sakura exclaimed, looking back and forth between the people surrounding her. "Tell me what the hell is going on! Who are they! And where did you get that mask?"

"Sorry Sakura, I have to deal with this, I am, after all, the Anbu captain." With those words, Kyuubi and Itachi put his hands on his shoulder and all three of them vanished. Sakura rounded on Sasuke, who was mentally cursing his boyfriend for leaving him to explain.

"Um, Sakura, didn't Naruto say that Orochimaru was here. Heh, heh, bye." he said, leaving Sakura staring after a retreating trail of dust. Sakura sat down hard.

"What just happened?"

131313131313131313

Naruto appeared in the Hokage office with Kyuubi and Itachi in his genjutsu now. Due to the link that still connected Naruto and Kyuubi, Naruto had been able to call Kyuubi, to have him appear instantly at his side. The reason the barrier around the Hokage office had not kept them out was that because they had been touching Naruto, they had been able to pass through just like he had been able to.

Already arranged in her office were all of the other Anbu, as well as the high ranking jounin, such as all the former rookie 9. That was one of the reason that Naruto was still though of as a chuunin, it made his absence at this sort of thing inconspicuous.

"Choose your squad and the other squad leaders." Tsunade said, all the dignity of a Hokage around her, though it was still slightly less commanding than it might have been due to the ink on her face.

Naruto opened his mouth to answer before Sakura rushed in, panting.

"Sorry Hokage-sama, I was, um, held up." she said quickly. She stared at Naruto and his companions, and wondered vaguely where the Sasuke look-alike had gone, and where this tall, golden eyed guy had come from. She was about to open her mouth to ask, when her brain finally caught up with her.

If Naruto hadn't told her, his own team-mate, of his secret, he would hardly want others to know. She would keep quite for now.

"White Anbu, you're squad assignments, please." The Hokage said, as Naruto had been watching Sakura warily to see what she would do. She winked at him and he visibly relaxed.

"Alright. I want their to be four squads. I will lead the first one, the second will be lead by Shikamaru, the third by him," he gestured to Kyuubi, "The fourth by him." he motioned to Itachi .There were several startled noises.

"Who are they?" was the loudest and most frequent.

"That is of no importance, I trust both of them with my life and they will lead you well." 'After all,' he added to himself, 'Itachi was an Anbu captain himself and Kyuubi led a score of deamons before. . . Everything'

"Alright." Tsunade said, "Chose your squads, leaders."

Naruto spoke first "Uchiha Sasuke." '_Big surprise_' Tsunade thought. The way squads were chosen was much like choosing teams in school, each captain chose on at a time until everyone had been chosen

"Yamanaka Ino." came from Shikamaru. They continued in this manner until everyone had been chosen. The final teams came out to be

Naruto: Sasuke, Sakura, Neji and other random ninja's

Shikamaru: Ino, Chouji and Shino and other random ninja

Kyuubi: Hinata, Lee, Kakashi (who was quite sure that he had been winked at and felt confused and a bit disturbed by this) and other ninjas

Itachi: Kiba, because no one else would take him, Tenten, because she was always forgotten, a girl named Hikaru, who he had sold the pictures to, and other random ninja's.

"Alright you guys, lets go!" Naruto said, leading his own squad out of the room , the other's following. Sakura was in a sort of shock, was this Naruto? He seemed like such a different person. And she had actually met the White Wolf Anbu, and he was nothing like Naruto. How was this possible. . . ?

However, she didn't have time to be confused, they had bigger fish to fry.

Or snakes.

13131313131313131313131313131313

Thy spent the rest of the day and most of the night battling. Sakura, as the only medic nin, had her hands full keeping people healed enough to fight. Luckily, the Konoha nin were fast and did not get injured often.

One by one the Sound nins fell, each person defeated by one or another of Konoha's skilled ninja's. Kyuubi was the one who killed Kabuto, Itachi killed a few of Orochimaru's top men. In the end, the only person left was Orochimaru. And he was fighting Naruto.

As the Sound nins fell, Naruto's fight began to draw a crowd. Who was this man, who they had already

thought strong, to be able to compete with the most powerful of the three legendaries.

Naruto was oblivious to the crowd, he matched Orochimaru evenly. At one point he didn't block Orochimaru's fist, which swung around to hit him square on the nose. Or where his nose would be had it not been hidden by a mask. A distinct cracking sound was heard, but the mask remained firm.

Sasuke started forward, intent on helping the blonde with his battle, but was stopped by an arm that had been thrust in front of him. He looked up to see Kyuubi, who shook his head.

"It's Naruto's fight. It's a fight that he needs to fight himself, need to win himself, having you there would only distract him."

Sasuke didn't remember much of the fight after that. He remembered wondering why Naruto didn't use his kage bushin, then realized that with so many people watching, it would be a dead give away to his identity. It was his signature move, after all.

He remembered that both of them had called out their animals, Orochimaru his snake and Naruto that frog. Then Orochimaru had said something and had attacked Sasuke out of nowhere. The next thing he had know, Naruto had thrust a chidori through the bastards stomach.

Orochimaru had fallen to the ground, in an almost slow motion type of death. Naruto had wiped his bloody arm off on his robes. The the crowd, that had been watching all this, stunned, slowly began to clap. Naruto had turned, shocked by the unfamiliar sound.

He reached behind his head to rub the back of his hair, as he always did when he was nervous.

This, though, jostled the broken mask. In almost slow motion the first part of the mask began to slip, although the sound was lost in the noise. As they all started to see what was going on, they leaned in, holding their breaths, as the second part of the mask fell, the shattering sound almost defining.

The mask of the one they had worshiped slipped away, revealing the face of the one they had always hated.

"Um, hi?" Naruto tried.

The crowd went nuts. Wht the hell was the deamon brat doing? How was he that powerful? WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON?

Tsunade saw this as her chance to step in. This was the perfect opportunity, the one that she had been waiting for, for almost 4 years.

"People, people, calm down!" she said, her voice bearing no arguments. The people quited, soothed by the presence of their Hokage.

"Well, I think, that it is clear form today that I am nit the strongest of the Konoha ninja's, and the Hokage has to be the strongest, am I right?" she asked, the people, unsure of where this was going, simply nodded.

"Alright, and it's quite clear, since I was the strongest and I was not able to beat Orochimaru, and Naruto was, that he is the strongest. He will be the new Hokage."

"WHAT!" Naruto yelled, shocked.

"You heard me brat, you're the next Hokage."

That was all it took for the villager to go berserk.

"You can't make that deamon Hokage, he'll kill us all!"

"He'll never be a good leader!"

"Are you insane!"

- - - To Be Continued - - -

Yes, I know, I'm evil, you hate me, how could I leave it at such a cliffhanger, etc, but whatever. I wrote a one shot, you guys should read it, it's called A Naruto Shade Of Orange.

Oh, and Happy Birthday to my beloved girlfriend, Rayne-kun! Yay! Go read her fics! Now! Go!

Oh, and review, if you want a fast, decent update anyway. XP.

Oh, and yes, it was short, I'm really sorry.


	14. A New Ally

Alright! Next chappie!

- - - Recap- - -

Um, Naruto killed Orochimaru (finally!) and now Tsunade wants to make him Hokage (Naruto, not Orochimaru, duh. X.X)

- - - End Recap- - -

Also, because you people don't seem to read my little author notes at the top, I really really want/need your suggestions, my idea battery is low. Everything that I have planned is to far in the future to do now, and I need something to put in until then. So unless I get ideas, this fic is going to get either A) Bad. B) Slow C) Short or as a last result D) Discontinued.

- - - Start Fic- - -

The enraged cry rose from the villagers, as though Naruto had done them a personal wrong by just being liked. The shouts echoed, bouncing off the walls and the bodies of the fallen Sound. No one noticed the way that Naruto seemed to be shrinking back in on himself. Then, out of nowhere, a kunai shot out, aimed for the blondes head.

It was caught in a solid wall of sand. Naruto and the others who knew that only one person who could do that, looked around to see Gaara leaning against a pillar. A deadly silence fell over the village as Tsunade's eyes scanned the crowd furiously. A man started forward, lunging for the blonde.

His hand was caught instantly by Kyuubi, who had seen something like this coming. The other of the former Rookie nine, along with Gai's team, moved slowly to the front, until they had formed a wordless barrier around Naruto. Kakashi joined them, as did Iruka, followed other Anbu.

"See." Tsunade said. "This is what it truly means to be Hokage. Not just to have strength, but to have people loyal, people who are willing to die for you. These people look ready to fight for him, to me."

"But he is the Kyuubi-" one man started, before he was interrupted by Sakura, who finally caved in to Inner Sakura, who had been struggling to get out since the first comment.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU KNOW?" she yelled, causing even those who agreed to take multiple steps back. "I have been his team-mate for 6 fcking years and I have never, ever seen Naruto anything other than sweet, and caring. Even if he does have the Kyuubi within him, he is in complete control. It's not like Kyuubi is walking around attacking you villagers is it?" At these words, Kyuubi quickly let go of the man he had been holding back.

"But at the Chuunin exam, he used it's power." an adviser called. Neji stepped forward.

"Yes, and he _controlled_ it. If it had truly consumed him, do you really think that I would be standing here today? If Naruto's really as apparently blood thirsty as you keeping making him out to be, then why hasn't he killed you yet. You've givin him every reason to. And yet he fights to protect you. All I can say is that he's stronger than you will ever be." Neji resisted the urge to spit at the mans feet, as he really didn't think that it would help anything.

"Well, there you have it, these people obviously want Naruto to be Hokage. And they're willing to fight for it."

A storm of protest broke out at these words. Finally, Tsunade's voice rang out above everyone else's.

"How about a compromise. In a week, Naruto will fight each of those who protest, if he wins, he will become Hokage the following day. If he loses, he will be sent back to chuunin." The people appeared to be thinking this over, they even gathered together in a huddle. Then they pushed one man forward. He glared at them, apparently not wanting to be the one to speak, but obviously wanting these thoughts to be heard.

"But how is that proving that he can control Kyuubi?" he demanded, quaking slightly beneath the glare of all those standing around the blonde "And how can you demote him to Chuunin? He's already a chuunin."

Tsunade snorted. "Pay attention man! Naruto is an Anbu, he has been for over four years. He's been _your_ captain for three and a half of those year."

The man was not sure what exactly to say to this, so he pretended that it had never happened "We insist that it be proven that he can control the Kyuubi."

"Alright."

"We also feel that a week is to long to prepare."

"What!" Sakura yelled "But he just fought Orochimaru!"

"Well, if you don't think he can do it. . ."

"Yea, well, I'd like to see you face that bastard and even live for five minutes, much less beat him, then be expected to fight in only an hour."

"We suggest that the fights be tomorrow." The man said boldly.

"No." Tsunade said. "Three days, at the soonest."

"Two."

"No. Three." they continued in this fashion for a few moments, before Naruto stepped forward, placing a calming hand on her shoulder.

"I'll fight you tomorrow." he stated, with all the authority that he had gained after his years as Anbu captain. "Any one who doubts my ability to defend this village, please step forward. If you can beat me, I'll gladly forfeit my dream, and you can become Hokage in my stead. Happy now?" The villagers nodded, although reluctant to be bossed around by this child.

"Now, about this matter about my ability to control Kyuubi." he started.

"I'll do it." came a voice from the circle of Naruto's defendants, revealing the face of Yamanaka Ino.

"No." said the villager's chosen representative. "You are to close to the" he glanced at Naruto "problem. You may tilt the odds in his favour."

"Then _I_ will go." came another voice from the crowd, who stepped to the side to bring to light Ino's father, a powerful ninja in his own right, possessing the same bloodline that made Ino so unique. Tsunade looked the man up and down, assessing if he were trustworthy, any ill meaning ninja who was allowed access to a willing mind could do unlimited damage.

She glanced at her student, who surely would know if this man could be trusted, he was, after all, her best friends father. Sakura glanced back at her and gave a hardly seen nod, which Tsunade returned to the man.

"For those of you who would say that Naruto has altered his mind to make it seem like he's in control, this will be performed now." She said. "Is this fair?" she asked, looking around at all parties concerned. Both nodded. Yamanaka Shian moved his hands in the jutsu most were accustomed to seeing on a teenage girl, making his motions look less sleek and elegant, when compared to the necessary grace that all kunoichi possessed.

His body went limp, caught in time by Ino, who had known this was coming

14141414141414141414141414141414

Shian walked along the familiar halls of the mind. Like most, it was lined with multicoloured doors, although, unlike most, the doors were not the brighter, more cheerful shades of red and yellow, but rather shades of grey and sometimes even black.

This could only mean one thing. All dark door were bad memories, and all bright were happy ones. It shocked him to find that the dark doors outnumbered the bright at about a 1 to 10 ratio. He felt himself reflexively looking for the large door that usually led to achieving control of the boy, before he remembered that this was not what he was here for.

He looked around, and spotted a door, pure black, which was crisscrossed with heavy metal chains. He started walking towards it, gathering the power that made his family unique, to open this door despite the wishes of the owner.

He was stopped by a startling hand on his shoulder. He came face to face with a man who looked exactly like the one who he had seen accompanying the blonde boy.

"You came here for me, did you not?" the man asked calmly. "Leave the doors alone. Especially that one."

"Are you the Kyuubi No Kitsune?" he demanded, calling forth his strenghth as a ninja if this man, no, deamon, proved to be a threat. Kyuubi inclined his head.

"I am. But I'm sure that you're hardly comfortable on your feet, come, we'll go to my part of this mind. And if you're good, I'll explain things to you." He gently took Shian's arm and guided him away from the black door, leading him through a gate that was closed firmly behind them. This revealed a very comfortable place, complete with bed, couch and TV. Wait, TV? He looked over at it, to see that the screen was dark.

"Link to the kit's eyes. I need to be aware you know." Kyuubi explained. It did not escape his attention that the deamon used an affectionate tone when talking about Naruto. Interesting. But that was not the point, he had a mission, first and foremost was to figure out what the _hell_ was going on

"Sit." Kyuubi gestured to a small table, which was set with two place settings. '_Two?_' Kyuubi walked around, grabbing a few things from around the room. He finally sat down across from Shian, placing some cups and a pitcher down.

"Tea?" he asked politely. The man stared at him. "Ok, maybe not. I'm sure you want me to explain." Shian just nodded, still not quite believing that he was having tea, _tea_! Inside Uzumaki Naruto's head with Kyuubi No _Kitsune_ of all people. Or whatever. "Well, since I'm not very good at story telling myself, I'll just answer what ever questions you have, hm?" He cocked an eyebrow.

Shian swallowed, then nodded. He had always thought of himself to be a fair man, now it was being put to the test. He had fought this deamon in his true form not two decades ago, yet here the same creature was, offering him tea. This gave him no reason to doubt that there might have been a reason for the massacre that took place that night. After all, wasn't it a ninja's job to look beneath the surface. So lets start with the easy questions. Or at least the most obvious ones. Starting with why Kyuubi had attacked in the first place.

Kyuubi's golden eyes widened and he sighed, lowering the glass that he had been raising to his lips. Memories rushed to fill that widened space, memories filled with a pain that was so easy for Shian to read.

"My brother." he said. Shian suspected that this would be followed by more so did not press the matter, and indeed, after a few more moment, Kyuubi spoke again.

"This was almost 18 years ago, when human found it amusing and entertaining to hunt deamons for sport. Many of our number dwindled, many of us fought back. But more of us were peaceful, we kept to our selves and bothered no one, but we also made no move to help the humans. But the humans did not know how many of us there truly were. Humans are not the most observant, relying on only their eyes, which often deceive. So when one of us had been slain, should another appear elsewhere, they would come to the conclusion that they were one and the same, and marked us as immortal.

"In all truth, we are nearly as mortal as you are. We age differently, and do not die easily, true. We can survive years without food, and have a larger body to contain a larger chakra, but once we are killed, we remain dead. You humans did not understand this. They feared that we were immortal, and all out to kill them. Deamon hunting grew even more popular, and with it, the number of innocent lives taken increased, on both sides.

"One of these was my brother. M younger brother. He had fallen in love with a human girl, who lived in the village of Sand. But he was found out and imprisoned in a child, his own child. I believe you call him Gaara? But that isn't all. He was driven mad by this, the betrayal of his wife, the pain of seeing the way his son was treated because of him. He became nothing more than a broken soul, kept alive by his own anger, for his host would not speak to him.

"The one time he tried to reach out to his son in dreams, the boy believed that he as trying to posses him and has not slept to this day. This eventually consumed him." Kyuubi closed his eyes, clearly grieving for his brother. "But I did not find this out for many years. He had fought with our father, who disapproved of his relationship with a human, and while I did not approved nor disapprove, I believed that he should tell her his true nature. Because of this, he would not tell anyone but me where he was living.

"Later, I heard that a deamon had been slain, although I only heard a few words, Konoha being one of them. I never figured out what the context was, but at that moment, my fury was doing all the thinking. All I could think of was that my brother, my precious, innocent, life-loving brother, had been killed by those he loved the most, the ones he had left our family for. Despite my wishes to protect him, I had failed.

"I attacked Konoha that night, I did not mean to harm so many, but I was looking for one specific person, that girl, the one who had betrayed him. That was the only thing that I could think of. I uprooted trees for the sheer pleasure of feeling the power of doing so. In a way, I suppose you could say that I let my darker side consume me. The next thing I knew, a blonde man was standing before me. He seemed to understand more about deamons than most did, he knew that we could be killed and somehow he knew about Shukaku.

"He also knew how to kill us, but instead he chose not to. Instead he gave his life to protect me, for reason I have yet to understand. He put me in the body of his own new born son, giving me the ability to talk to him if he sought me out first, all control over my habitat was handed to my host, should he choose to make it hell, it could be. But it could also be nice. And it was."

"Why?" Shian asked before he could stop himself. He could tell that everything the deamon said was true, it came along with his bloodline. His daughter had not discovered this, but, as with the Sharingan, it had multiple levels, the first being simple possession. The next was the ability to know whether someone spoke the truth or not, requiring no jutsu's. All he had to do, was when someone spoke, if he concentrated his chakra in to the place where he went whenever he left his body, then let it flow to his eyes, the person would be surrounded by a glow, the same shade of the person's chakra, if they lied, the glow went out.

There would be ways around this, so it was not common knowledge. For example, a person could spread their chakra out evenly whenever they lied, so no one knew about the particular trait. The third and final level was the ability to read a persons surface thoughts, although only his grandfather had ever achieved this level. He never did tell anyone else how either. . .

"Why what?" Kyuubi asked.

"Why are you and that de- Naruto, so close?" he asked. Kyuubi gave a wry smile.

"At first? He reminded me of my brother, his simple joy with life, his fascination with everything around him and his eagerness to learn and please. Then I simply began to like him for himself. He would come to see me every now and then, and at first, seeing him there just reminded me of everything I had lost, my brother, my freedom, and in a way, my life, and I snapped at him, but I still let him borrow the power he needed, for when I had been sealed, the man must have miscalculated. The boys chakra was vast on it's own, very large for a human, and I suppose the man must have mistaken his chakra for mine and bound both.

"Then, as he began to visit more often, after Sasuke" '_That's strange, he calls Uchiha by his first name, no suffix even' _"I began to relax around him, and he began to ask questions about my life, trying to satisfy his never ending thirst for more knowledge. I told him. The next day, I was suddenly in a room with a bed instead of the cage I had grown used to. He came to visit again. After that visit, my new room had blankets and food, although I didn't need to eat. Every visit after that I got something new. Soon I began to anticipate his visits, not just for the things, but for his company. We talked about many things, He treated me as an equal, so I returned the favour.

"After that, I found that when I spoke, he was able to hear me. I could talk inside his mind. Soon after that, I received a link to see what he could." he gestured to the television. "Then hearing." he pointed to the stereo-like set up that had remained unnoticed for a while now.

"After I told him that he actually had a lot more chakra, he began researching jutsus to try and release it. When he didn't find anything, he began to make jutsu's of his own. He managed it faster than I could ever have guessed. Soon, he was making up jutsu's of his own at every opportunity. Eventually, he gave me the best gift of all. He gave me a real physical body. This one took him the longest, a full three months. And that's how things are now."

". . .Oh." Shian said, not really sure how else to reply to his, before a thought suddenly hit him "Why are you telling me this?" His eyes narrowed in suspicion as he watched the deamon across from him warily. Said deamon shrugged.

"Someone, an adult someone, has to know the truth. And my options were somewhat limited, as few people can walk into minds. Plus, you seem like a fair man, one who can be convinced by truth instead of acting like a rock just because you don't want to be wrong."

Shian nodded, this made sense. Sort of. Just one more thing was nagging him. . .

"How are you Shukaku's brother?" he asked. "Isn't he a badger or something?"

Kyuubi laughed "Deamon genetics rarely follow any rules of what may or may not seem possible."

"One last question." he said, Kyuubi raised an eyebrow to indicate that he should continue. "That door, the one with the locks, what was behind it? I've never seen one like that before."

Kyuubi's face immediately hardened. Shian raised his hands.

"If you don't want to say. . ."

"No, someone should know, someone has to know. Just don't tell the kit that I told you, alright?" Kyuubi asked, all traces of a grin gone. Shian nodded. Kyuubi took a deep breath.

"Behind there is memories that were to painful for Naruto to handle. He can't remember anything that I put behind that door, but if anyone, say you, tampered with it. . ." he left the sentence hanging ominously. The look in his eyes told him that more people than Naruto would get hurt if that door was touched.

"What happened?" he asked. He didn't want to ask, but felt that he had to know, like Kyuubi had said. Kyuubi closed his eyes, before opening them again.

"I don't think I can tell you. But, I have some of the memories, maybe I can show you." he said. He walked over to where the TV was, and placed his hands on it. He closed his eyes and got a concentrating look on his face. The next moment, the TV had snapped on. Shian moved to the couch, sitting to that he could see properly.

"I'm going to leave the sound off. Some things are best left unheard."

Scenes flashed across the screen. Scenes that made horror reflect in Shians eyes. He sat and watched as people that her had looked up to and respected in his years as a ninja, even his sensei when he had been a gennin, treated a small child, no older than eight, like a human punching bag. The scenes began to shift and change and the blonde boy in the memories grew older, more mature. But as his years increased, so did the horrors that were inflicted upon him. He froze, his eyes wide, as slowly, it began to get worse than he could ever imagined.

The screen went blank. "Sorry." Kyuubi said. "I really doubt you want to see that. What you saw wasn't even close to the worse of it."

"What! But he's just a boy, a child!" he cried, outraged and the horrified on Naruto's behalf. Kyuubi gave a wry bitter smile.

"Yeah, but the people don't see that. They just see me." his whole voice, posture, eyes reflecting his bitterness and regret for what his host, soul brother, had been put through, because he had been unable to control himself. "So." he regained control of his facial expression, "Will you help him? Or will you leave and never look back?"

Shian stood up. There was really only one thing he could do at this point. He could now see how strong the boy truly was. And how far his fellow ninja's would go to break that strength. He had to make this right, for everyone's strength. He could see now that Naruto would be a great Hokage, the missing link they needed to truly make Konoha the village it could be.

"I'm with you." he said, his voice decisive. Kyuubi grinned, a stuck out his hand.

"Good." They shook.

14141414141414141414141414141414

Shian's body jerked up. He stared around him. Now that he was no longer in the kids mind, everything that had happened seemed so surreal. But he knew that it had to be real, he had felt the same after the first time that he had possessed someone, but he had quickly learned that doubting anything he had seen could lead to horrible, potentially fatal results. He had learned that one the hard way. But he could make up for that again. He would help this kid, who needed his help, needed the support of the high ranking ninjas, as many as he could get.

And he could make the first step. The kid deserved it, as much, if not more than anyone.

He suddenly saw a red haired man, now identified as Kyuubi No Kitsune, reappear next to Naruto. He saw Naruto lean over to whisper a question, and Kyuubi whispered a reply. So when Kyuubi was onside Naruto's body, his own physical body disappeared. Interesting.

"Well?" Tsunade asked

He looked up, to find the entire village staring at him. The men he had seen in the memories, those bastards, were watching him with expecting, power-hungry eyes. They were obviously expecting that no matter what he had seen, that he would lie, and say that of course Naruto couldn't control Kyuubi, that his mind had bee taken over and that the seal was about to break.

He looked to the other side, where his daughter and her friends stood, all protecting the one person who had stomped all over their calm, quite lives, turned them upside down, shaken it up, poured ramen all over it, then calmly continued along with his life as though nothing had happened. There was only one thing he could really say.

"From what I could see, he has complete control. The seal is still intact and will remain that way for a while. Our forth knew what he was doing."

14141414141414141414141414141414

"Naruto. You have to give this up."

"What? Sasuke you know I can't."

"And why not?"

"I've worn this mask for most of my life."

"We all have, I gave up my mask to be with you. In the last three weeks, I've smiled, laughed, and just been myself more than I have in my entire life. You could at least do the favour, for Konoha. If I could do it for one person, can't you do it for a thousand?" Sasuke said, his face dead serious. Naruto was turning faintly pink.

"But Sasuke, it's all I have."

"You have me."

". . . Yeah, I guess I do." Naruto grinned, a contrast to his bright pink face. "Alright, I'll take off the mask, but, I heard that all masks have to be taken off with a kiss."

"Those are curses, dobe."

"Same difference." Naruto grinned again, before pulling Sasuke closer.

141414141414141414

"I don't know what's going on. But that deamon has put a curse of some kind over our children. He's corrupted our Hokage, and now he's even tricked Yamanaka."

"Yes. That deamon has to be stopped."

"We'll beat him in the fights tomorrow."

"But what if we don't? What if, somehow he wins?"

"How could he do that."

"I have no idea. But you know deamons, they'll do anything to get what they want."

"You're right. We have to stop him from getting to the fight."

"We'll do it. At all costs."

- - - To Be Continued - - -

Hahaha! What do you think of that! You like it? Thanks to Kai19, again, for her brilliant ideas. I really liked this chapter. I hoped you guys liked it. Oh, and Shian is going to get important later.

Ally


	15. A New Opponent

Yay! I got ideas. From some of you _mock glares at people with no ideas_. Just kidding. . anyway, special thanks to the following people for their ideas

LoversPastforgotten, Harmony8390, Fic Slayr, Herald-Mage Brinna, Jess Anime, FiveQz, Daitai Otonashii Ookami, and fawn for their ideas.

Oh, and many people (The Dark Kitsune Lord and Midnight's Requiem) have pointed out to me that Shian is not actually Ino's fathers name, that his name is Inoichi. And, after writing this, I remembered that he was on a team with Shikamaru and Chouji's dads, which might not work in my plan, so Shian is now Ino's uncle. Sorry

Oh, and yes, I know that I don't spell deamon the American way that you're used to. This also applies to the words colour, vampyre, and others. Nor will I change my way of spelling to adapt to the language of a different country.

- - -Recap- - -

Um, the villagers plot to stop Naruto from getting to the fight/duel thing.

- - - End Recap - - -

- - - Start Fic - - -

It was a bright, sunny morning, and all was truly right with the world. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, the bastard were plotting, the flowers were- wait.

A group of men sat huddled in a dark alleyway that the beautiful atmosphere seemed unable to touch. They were planning, planning the downfall of a man that was givin no name, not from them at least. To them he was only a deamon, not any one worth receiving an actual name. Such things were to human and dare they say kind, to be applied to that monster.

One man in particular sat even more in the shadows than the others, his eyes hidden in darkness, the thought's whirling in his head. He would make that Kyuubi brat pay. The _thing_ had killed his boss. He had been working as an undercover Sound nin for all of his life. It had been his only goal, to see Orochimaru assume his true place of ultimate power.

And that abomination, the one who the villagers, weak as they were, should have killed at birth, had destroyed his goal with one blow from a kunai. He ignored the fact that it had been a long and hard fought battle, won by cunning and speed more than brute strenghth. He would not let that fiend live. And the fights would be the perfect excuse. He would wait until the deamon was so weak after the many other battles he would face, that there would be no way he could lose.

He would pay

151515151515151515151515

"Come on Naru-chibi! Rise and shine!" Kyuubi yelled, running into said boys room to draw open the curtains and jump on the edge of the bed. His former container snorted and rolled over, as if to say 'Up? Never!'

Kyuubi grinned. A challenge! He grabbed the end of the blanket and tugged. Naruto looked at him blearily, and tugged it back. Kyuubi pouted. There was one thing that had always worked. . .

"Hey Naruto! Look! It's Sasuke!" He yelled. Naruto opened one eye and Kyuubi began a mental cheer, before

"Nice try. That one's getting old." before pulling the blanket completely over his head, leaving only a golden curl to escape, along with the curled fingers that were fastened to the top of the blanket, keeping it firmly in place. Kyuubi sighed.

"Alright, but hurry and get up, Itachi is making breakfast for us."

"He's what?" Naruto's voice rang out, slightly muffled by the blanket that had landed firmly on Kyuubi's head in the other's haste to stop the horror that was Itachi cooking.

Kyuubi pulled the blanket off, to see Naruto rummaging through his closet, searching for something not orange to wear for his fights.

"Kidding." Kyuubi grinned, holding up two fingers in a victory sign. "I win. Now hurry up, your lover boy awaits."

151515151515151515

"Stop right there, deamon." a voice growled out menacingly. Naruto tensed slightly but otherwise kept walking, flanked on the sides by Sasuke and Sakura, with Kyuubi and Itachi guarding the back. Sakura looked over at the man, surprised by the tone he addressed her former team-mate by. The others, all of whom had mastered their facial expressions at young ages, ignored the man.

He didn't like this.

"Look at me when I talk to you, deamon." he growled out. Naruto kept walking, hardly even blinking. "I said, look at me! Didn't anyone ever teach you to respect you're superiors." with those, what he thought, menacing words, he launched himself at the innocent blonde.

He stopped short, a kunai pressed to his throat, knowing that a further move would sever his neck. He saw the youngest Uchiha glaring up at him and he felt the sudden urge to run away. Far, far away.

"Touch him, and you'll answer to me." Sasuke growled out, his voice ten times more ominous than the mans had been. He pressed the kunai closer, until a hardly seen line of red began to appear. "Got it?"

Terrified, the man nodded, his eyes roving in terror. Suddenly, help came from an unexpected place. Naruto laid a passive hand on Sasuke's shoulder.

"Leave it Sasuke, he's not worth it." Sasuke's own eyes flickered over his shoulder to the blonde, than back to the man. He seemed to be weighing his options. Then he dropped the kunai.

"Ch. Some ninja, he's terrified. From just a kid a like me? What a loser." he pocketed the kunai and strode off, hands shoved in his pockets.

They arrived in perfect time, finding a stage like platform set up, with people milling about, waiting for the main event. Some people were even selling popcorn. Sakura felt her blood boil. This was Naruto! Naruto who was a living ball of sunshine and innocence, all these people just to see him fall, just for the entertainment. It was sick.

Then someone was calling that they were here, and she felt herself pulled from the blondes side as he himself was forced onstage. But was then that she noticed the long, so long, line of people, all waiting to fight Naruto. Inner Sakura broke lose.

Standing up on the nearest, most convent table, and on someone's food, but they shouldn't be eating anyway, so she didn't care, and started telling the villagers exactly what she thought of them, the kindest of which involved her telling them exactly where they could put their prejudices.

"This is Naruto! The worst he's ever done is write on a mountain. He beat Orochimaru only to defend this village, not for any other reason. You people make me sick, talking about what a deamon he is. If anyone's a deamon here, it's you! Naruto has been nothing but kind all of his life and you're still here trying to tear his dream down. " she continued in this manner for quite a while, no one bothering, or daring, to stop her. She concluded with a final message.

"Are you willing to sink so low as destroying life long dreams?"

"Yeah!" one of the villagers, not a shinobi, cried. "That kid's not so bad, he always stops to say help my wife with her garden."

"And he always come by for ramen."

"He's helped me with some stuff occasionally."

Finally, only about thirty people remained in line, the others either not willing to go to such an extreme, or finally seeing that Naruto could make a good Hokage.

When Tsunade figured that no one else would be leaving, she stepped on to the stage, a megaphone in her hand. When the people had calmed down enough for her to be heard, she started to explain the rules. No killing, stop when she said stop, no deliberate killing, and no hitting, ur, below the belt, as it were.

Naruto and the person standing across from him nodded. She called for the fight to begin and the man lunged at the child. Naruto dodged, barely. Sasuke wondered why wasn't he fighting like he could?

The man threw another punch, this one barely grazing the blonde. Who disappeared is a cloud of smoke. There was a murmur among the crowed.

"Wrong one." came a voice from the other edge of the stage. "I'm over here." The man whirled, when had that brat made a clone? No matter, if that was the best he could do, this fight was in the bag. The boy was leaning casually leaned against a wall, munching on a corndog. The man reached into a kunai pouch and threw one at the blonde, who flipped over it, throwing his corndog into the air, and ducking down to dodge the knife aimed for his head. He rushed toward the man, swerving to avoid another one. The third, his hand shot out to catch the kunai in midair.

Grinning, he ignored the mans shock and avoided he mans foot as it swung towards his nose, and pressing the knife to the mans throat.

"Win! Naruto!" Tsunade called. Naruto grinned, before flipping backwards and catching his corndog as it came back down. He held up a peace sign as he finished off the corndog. The man slouched off stage reluctantly, a young woman with an unflattering sneer marring her otherwise pretty features stepped up.

"Don't get cocky, deamon. He was weak. I won't make the same mistake. I'll beat you easy, child." she said. Naruto simply raised an eyebrow, and said

"Is that right?" before tossing the empty corndog stick behind his shoulder, where it landed in the trash. Tsunade called for the fight to begin and the woman waited, clearly waiting for Naruto to attack first. Naruto merely regarded her with a raised eyebrow, before sighing.

"Could we hurry it up a bit, I still have a bunch more people to go through."

"Hm, shame. I don't care."

"Ah well, I was hoping that you'd back up those though words of yours. Guess I was wrong." Naruto smirked. The girl glared.

"Oh, I can do more than talk, trust me."

"I dunno, all I see is your mouth moving."

"I'll show you, deamon brat!" she screamed. She moved her hand in a complicated jutsu. Immediately she burst into flames. Naruto blinked.

"Well, that's cool. Can I do that?" he inquired politely. The flame snorted.

"I doubt it. It's a family bloodline."

"Ah. Well, as they say, the only way to put out a fire." he moved his hands in a jutsu that Sasuke hadn't seen since Water country. "Is with water." A water dragon appeared, lunging toward the ball of fire. It doused her in icy water.

The girl stood, her once ruby hair now a dulled copper, dripping. She stared at the dragon, her mouth dropping in shock. Never in all her life had her bloodline been thwarted. The dragon suddenly exploded in a shower of drops. Naruto bursting through the veil of water, lading a kick square above her chest, after all, Naruto wasn't completely heartless. She flew backwards, landing outside the arena. Naruto grinned.

"Not bad, for a kid, right?" he laughed as Tsunade announced his victory. Naruto went through the next people easily, until one last man remained.

He stepped on stage, his face set confidently.

"All that fighting must have wearied you. Deamon." he spat at Naruto's feet. The boy gave him a look, starting at his feet, and working up.

The man wore a black pants, with a shirt of a colour so dark it looked black. He wore his jounin vest over his clothes, his headband tied securely on his bicep. His hair was dark and greasy, clinging to his ragged face as if it would fall away if it were ever brushed. Naruto searched his mind for the name that went along with this face. Uwakimono Kanchou.

There was something off about the man, something that didn't quite fit. . . He had seen this man before, except, the headband, there had been something different about the headband. He drew up the image in his mind, trying to find out what was nagging the back of his mind, the feeling that something was very wrong.

He stared into the mans face, which was twisted with such a hatred that it shook Naruto to the bone, even though he had been seeing things similar since he was ac child. It clicked. The headband, the sign hadn't been a leaf.

It was been a music note. A symbol of Sound. The man was a spy. He wanted revenge. But Naruto couldn't kill him, to do so would be as destructive as letting himself be killed. The man was a highly respected man in society and the village would not take his death well. The people who had just decided that he might be worthy would be lost. Along with his only chance of fulfilling the promise he had made to the third. He wouldn't let that happen. He would find another way.

15151515151515151515151515151515

The deamon was watching him warily, almost differently than he had the others. Had he figured it out? But that was impossible, the boy was an idiot, and no one in village had ever suspected him. Well, no one alive now had. Well, even if the fool had guessed, he would be no match for him. He was Uwakimono Kanchou, member of the village hidden in the Sound and no piece of hell spawn could ever defeat him. The idiot must have waited a good deal of strenghth and chakra on the others. He would be easy prey, and his master would be avenged.

He moved his hands in the jutsu that he had been perfecting since he had first joined the village of sound. It was his bloodline, but it had not come naturally, in fact, it had taken him almost three times as long as his other family members. It may not have made that much of a difference, had he not been in the same year as that prodigy Uchiha. The comparison made his failures seem times worse. Humiliated, he had come to the newly formed village of sound, searching for the power that he would need to prove to all of them that he was worthy of their praise.

He had wanted to join the Sound immediately, but Orochimaru had insisted on his staying on as a spy. Over his protests, the man had asked him, wouldn't his revenge be much sweeter if he could see the looks on their faces as one they had trusted suddenly turned on them in battle. Agreeing, he had worked as a spy in Konoha for the past 20 years.

He would not let this be ruined by some deamon brat. With that thought, he disappeared. The Uwakimono family bloodline, to disappear completely, leaving no trace. It wasn't so difficult for most of his family, but for him, sometimes an arm, or leg would appear, sometimes he'd fade into focus, than back out again. But mostly there'd be a noticeable shimmer in the air where he was standing, like looking through a heat wave, which gave away his position. Not anymore.

Naruto grinned, finally, a challenge, of sorts. Not much of one, but better than the others. He could use that one jutsu, but that that'd be far to dull. Maybe if it got to challenging. But he had decided at the beginning to use hand-signs, so as not o freak people out, to much.

He felt a brush of air and dodged, feeling a solid rush by where his head had been, what felt like it would have been a painful blow. Fully aware of how stupid he must look, he dodged another blow, judging from the sound alone. He was glad now that Kyuubi, as his unofficial trainer, had insisted on sparring blindfolded. Apparently the fox wasn't as crazy as Naruto had thought when it had been suggested to him. Not that he wasn't still crazy.

Feeling a bit silly, he kicked out, hitting the invisible mass squarely in the chest. Naruto smirked as he sensed the man flying back words and landing with a well-heard crack on the hard wood. Clearly he had not been expecting a counter attack and had thus not been properly braced. Ah well, that was Kanchou's problem. It just made things easier. For him anyway.

He flipped into the crowd, which leaped out of his way. He grinned at a girl who had sipping a strawberry milkshake.

"Could I borrow this?" he winked at her. She nodded, blushing slightly, holding out her milkshake. "Thanks." he leaped back on stage and sipped on the straw. He felt the whoosh of air the indicated an on-coming punch. He raised his arm and caught the wrist and tugged the invisible force closer, upending the milkshake on where he figured the head would be.

There was now a floating head shaped, sputtering, strawberry coloured mass, which became a black, strawberry covered sputtering head. Naruto grinned. Pie. But he should end this quickly, those other fights had taken a toll on him, making him a bit more tired than he'd have thought.

Kanchou glared at him, thick pink drops slowly falling from his dark, now strawberry coloured hair. He wouldn't let some child, fool., deamon make a joke out of him. He lunged at the boy again, the strawberry milkshake splattering the floor as his hair whipped around him. His arms reached out, as if t catch the blonde by the throat and hold until the breath could no longer come and the life had left those obnoxious glowing, mocking blue eyes.

Another punch sent him sprawling, his jounin vest flying open. He regained his feet quickly, in time to block an oncoming punch, which had been aiming for his head. In doing so, he failed to see the foot aimed for his chest. He leaped back on instinct alone, so the kick only hit the inner side of his vest. His heart stopped as he felt the kick hit the hidden pocket he has sewn himself. As he felt his most hidden item fly out, landing with a clank on the wooden floor and skid to the edge of the raised platform.

He made a lunge for it, only to twist away from a head on collision with an orange-clad leg.

"Hm, whats this?" Naruto asked, unwrapping the black cloth from around the metal. A gasp sounded throughout the crowd as the layers revealed a black shape burned into the silver. A music note. Kanchou searched his mind for an excuse, although the fact that he had lunged for the object was probably enough evidence to the contrary of anything he might say. Lies, alibi's and possible expiations and phrases swam through his head, the first and foremost being

'Shit' but he didn't say that, that would be the worst and most condemning thing he could say. What was blurted from his mouth instead was "He planted it there!" he rose to his feet and pointed a furious, slightly shaking finger, at the blonde, who simply raised an eyebrow as he continued "That idiotic fool of a deamon framed me! He set it up, because I was about to beat him!"

"Really?" Naruto asked, a hidden smirk lurking at the edges of his mouth "So I went to the trouble to find a Sound nin, take his hiate, and somehow stash it in the _inside_ of your jounin vest, in the last fifteen minutes, all without you noticing." there were a few titters among the crowd. Kanchou stared around, what could he say to that?

Tsunade walked onstage as the murmurs of the crowd got louder. She took the small object from her foster brother's hands, plucking a strand of hair from it and holding it up to the light. She examined it for a moment before once again turning back to the crowd that was waiting for her analysis.

"It's definitely his, and judging from the marks on this headband, and the obvious signs of wear, it's been his for a while. Seize him." she ordered coolly. Naruto grinned. There was _still_ ink n her face, although now it was some other law, he could make out something about an A-rank mission and wondered if that was dangerous information to be wearing as a fashion device.

Uwakimono Kanchou was led off stage, his arms gripped by two Anbu. Tsunade declared him the winner. Naruto's friends cheered. Then, to the shock of many, so did the Itchiraku ramen guy. Who was joined by his daughter. Who was joined by her friends, one of whom was the girl who had provided Naruto with the milkshake. Slowly, the rest of the crown began to cheer, even including a few of the people that Naruto had beaten.

1515151515151515151515151515

"Yeah, yeah, shut up you two, you're making my head hurt." Naruto complained. "You've been celebrating for almost 5 hours."

"Why shouldn't we celebrate! Our little Naru-chan us going to be Hokage in just a week! Come on! Have another drink!"

"No thanks, Kyuu. How many drinks have you had anyway?"

"Not that many, um, 10? No, 12." Kyuubi said. Sasuke looked a bit scared at that and edged away a bit. Naruto laughed.

"Don't worry, he doesn't get drunk. I wish I could say the same about Kiba." They both looked over to said dog lover, who was having an animated conversation with a picture on Naruto's wall. About an hour later, the rest of the people had left, leaving only Naruto, Kyuubi, Sasuke and Itachi.

"Hey Itachi!" Kyuubi said, exclaiming the word like a child. "What were you and Sasuke like when you guys were little?" Naruto's head jerked up.

"Yeah! What were you guys like! Tell us!" He bounced to the foot of Itachi's chair, as if it were story time.

"Well." Itachi began "There was this one time. When Sasuke wanted me to train with him-"

"Stop!" Sasuke yelled "Not that story again!" There was a small blush hinting at his cheeks. Naruto and Kyuubi broke into identical mischievous and pounced on Itachi, demanding to be told until he gave in, although Naruto got the impression that it had more to do with Kyuubi's puppy eyes than anything he himself had done. Sasuke settled next to Naruto, looking grumpy that his wishes on the subject had been ignored.

- - -Flashback - - -

"Niisan, Niisan, will you play with me?" A five year old Sasuke implored his older brother. Itachi smiled and ruffled Sasuke's hair.

"Not right now." he said. Sasuke pouted.

"Why?"

"I have to go to work." he said calm as ever. Sasuke tilted his head in innocent confusion.

"Huh? What do you do at work, Niisan? Can I come?" he begged, latching on to his brothers leg. Itachi smiled down on him.

"I go to work and do dangerous thing for the Hokage."

"The men on the mountain?"

"Yeah, Sasuke, the man on the mountain."

"Oh." Sasuke seemed pacified by this, before pouting again and saying. "But niisan, why do you go to do stuff with them and not with me?"

"Because, when I go to work, and I do it right, they pay me for it."

"Oh." dawning comprehension lit the small boys face and he released his brothers leg and pulled back. "Niisan, wait here, okay?" he pleaded. Itachi smiled.

"Alright, but hurry." but Sasuke was already running up the stairs. In a few minutes he rushed back down, something clutched in his small fist

"Niisan?" he asked cutely.

"Yeah?"

"Is this enough? Is this what the mountain faces pay you?" he asked, opening his fist to reveal two quarters and a dime. Itachi stared at it, startled. "Is it enough, niisan? I have more, I've been saving. Is this enough for you to spend some time with me?" he pleaded. Slowly, Itachi grinned.

"Yeah, Sasuke, it's enough." he ruffled Sasuke's hair.

- - - End Flashback- - -

"Awww!" Naruto squealed "That's so cute!" he promptly glomped Sasuke, who seemed to be trying to mentally denying that he had ever done any such thing. Then an idea hit him.

"Oh yeah! Well what about that time that-" he began. Itachi paled.

"You wouldn't dare." he said. Sasuke smirked.

"Tell us!" Naruto cried. Sasuke turned to Itachi.

"Sorry _Niisan_," the sarcasm was evident "they forced it out of me. So what happened is. . ."

- - -Flashback- - -

"Come on Itachi-kun! It'll be fun!" squealed the green-haired Hikaru, now at age 14.

"No."

"But! All gay guys do it! I swear!"

"I'm bi."

". . .oh. All bi guys do it! I swear."

"There is no way in hell I'm going to put that shiny pink stuff on my nails."

"Oh, right. Well, actually, _I'm_ going to put it on your nails, and I'm going to use this lovely purple colour."

"Oh, well that makes all the difference."

"Really?"

"No. What on earth possessed me to tell _you_ of all people about my newly discovered sexuality."

"One, because I'm so yaoi obsessed. Two, because I'm just so damn cute."

"Che, cute, yeah right."

"Itachi, if you don't get over here and let me put this on you, so help me, I'll tell all the other yaoi fangirls about you!" She warned. Itachi looked terrified at the very thought and sat down quickly, offering her his hand reluctantly. She smirked at him and began to apply the shiny purple gloss to his nails.

- - - End Flashback- - -

Kyuubi and his former host were rolling on the ground with laughter, as Itachi looked as though he would very much like to hide his head in his, painted, hands and hide, which Kyuubi found adorable, although he didn't say this. When he had calmed down, he shot Itachi a questioning look 'Hikaru?" he mouthed, before jerking his head toward the other two boys, asking if Sasuke had been referring to the same Hikaru who ran the yaoi shop. After Itachi had nodded, he began.

"Oh yeah, well how about that time. . ."

The battle of flashbacks had begun.

- - - To Be Continued- - -

Oh, and this is important to, yes I know this chapter took longer than usual, so will the ones in the future. I do have a reason. Earlier this year I was sick with a sleeping virus. They never figured out what it was, but I slept about 18 hours or more a day for almost a month, then 12 hours a day for two weeks, than a bit less every day. I was out of school for almost two months, until it went away by itself.

The problem is, I'm starting to get more and more tired, just like last time, no matter ho much I sleep. I've just be to tired to write, and I hope you'll forgive me. yawn I going to bed. I slept for 4 hours than woke up, then went back to bed for ten, and I'm still tired. yawn night.


	16. A New Hokage

Hiya! I'm glad that you liked the chapter and stuff. Hopefully this one will be somewhat as good. Oh, and I'd like to say, to the 1318 people who read this, but didn't review. Shame on you, really. And to the 55 people who did, this chapter is for you.

Late Night Ruminations

- - -Recap- - -

Naruto wins all the spars, and Sasuke and Itachi have a flashback war, revealing the reason behind the nail polish.

- - - End Recap - - -

- - - Start Fic - - -

Sometimes, things happen that are truly unexpected. Naruto becoming Hokage was always considered one of these things. The fact that it happened was causing quite a stir in Konoha. The girls, who had started to notice Naruto, were thrilled.

After all, now that they had hit the years of teenage rebellion, Naruto's newfound appearance mattered far more than what their parents said, and since Naruto's appearance had greatly improved, his short blonde hair had lengthened to his shoulders, and no matter who it was on, long hair was hot. His eyes, which used to be hidden with his mock smile, were now open with a clear cerulean that was filled with laughter. His smile, once to big, and almost blinding in it's intensity, was now a wide, true smile of genuine happiness, which called an answering smile from every face, even those who had hated the boy for as long as anyone could remember.

No one could quite pinpoint the change to any specific time, although many of the girls swore that only a few days after, the familiar Sasuke Shop, in the back rooms of a well-travelled book store, suddenly became filled with a new blonde face, and the pictures in highest demand were of yaoi, not just a solitary figure.

The rest of Konoha's population had very mixed feelings on the matter, on one hand, he had been the White Wolf for the past few years, and in that role he had kept the village as safe, or safer, than they could have hoped. But on the other, he was the Kyuubi deamon, and had been that all his life, not just the last few years. And that had destroyed their town, and ruined their families.

But they had started new ones, and they had moved on, towards a brighter future, a future that the boy they had always hated strived to protect. Many parents still had their doubts about this boy, this infamous whirlwind of mischief. At one point, Sakura's mother had asked her, out of concern for her daughter, if she was alright working with they boy. If he ever hurt her, or did anything to frighten her.

The result had not been exactly the result that she had expected. In fact, her daughter had come very close to screaming at her. He was not _that boy_ he had a name, Naruto, and he was her team-mate! How dare she assume that he was cruel for a reason he had had no control over, and would not change if he had.

She had explained in less than polite terms that Naruto was in no way the Kyuubi. He was the container that held him at bay. She could no more say that the plastic bag holding her lunch was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

This conversation had been heard all over Konoha, and had been the topic under discussion for many days, whether the girl had a point or not. Maybe the deamon had converted her to his deamon ways, brainwashed her or something like it. But others, the kind, sweet one, the ones like Iruka, who would give people a chance no matter what or who they were, they said that as far as they could see, the boy, who was just a child really, had done nothing to warrant their hatred and would it kill them to be little nice to the boy?

A few of them had tried, and they had been rewarded by the brightest smile they had ever seen. About a week before Naruto's duel, a few of the people had started to accept the boy, although they kept this a secret. Until the fight that is, when they felt that now was as good a time as any to say so. After all, the safety of their village mattered more than their pride or their old fashioned prejudices. It had only taken a blonde by not even 20 to teach them that.

161616161616161616161616161616161616

"What are they fighting about this time?" Kyuubi asked, coming over to stand next to Itachi, who was watching his brother and his brothers boy friend spar with interest.

"Something about chocolates. Those two must look for an excuse to spar." Itachi laughed then glanced over to see Kyuubi looking a bit sheepish.

"Heh heh, they wouldn't happen to be fighting over the chocolates on the counter, would they?"

"Um, yeah, those are the ones. Why?"

"Um, I ate them." Kyuubi admitted, Itachi grinned.

"Did you save me any?" he asked. Kyuubi grinned in response., reaching into his pocket and pulling out a few half melted pieces of chocolate. The chocolate was fantastic. They just hoped that the two boys would enjoy sparring so much they would forget about the reason they had been sparring in the first place.

Maybe.

16161616161616161616161616161616

"Ok, now it's war." Naruto exclaimed when he saw the eaten box of chocolates that he had worked so hard to win. Well, actually the two of them had tied over it, but nothing, not even facts, could stir Naruto from his righteous indignation. So the only possible response to this horrible crime was to play matchmaker to the people responsible.

Sasuke couldn't really see how making the two _happier_ constituted as revenge. Naruto had just shrugged, and suggested maybe if they embarrassed both of them in the process. Sasuke had pondered this for a moment, than decided that this would be fair enough.

So they had planned, and plotted for quite a while, watching the two they were plotting about sit there calmly talking about, completely unaware.

"Maybe they don't need a big shove, maybe they just need a push." Sasuke said, after they had sufficiently killed each others plots.

"Hm. . ."

16161616161616161616161616161616

"I bet that you're all wondering why I called you here today." Tsunade said, to the resounding cheer of the audience.

"Well, I'm here to officially make Naruto the Rokudaime."

"WHAT!" Naruto yelled. "I thought that wasn't until next week."

Tsunade looked a bit sheepish as she replied "Well, heh, it _was_, until I saw, ur."

She was interrupted by Shizune running onto the stage. "What the HELL are you doing? Trying to push _your_ paperwork onto him!" she pointed a finger at the blond, who was now trying to stifle his laughter, while trying to decide how he should be reacting to this new information. Deciding that there really wasn't a way to answer this, he instead walked onto the stage and took a paper from the large stack in Shizune's arms. He glanced at the date then looked back at the Hokage, his eyebrow raised.

"Baa-chan, this is from December third. Last year." he said. Tsunade gave a sheepish laugh. Naruto shook his head. "Maybe it is better if we make me Hokage as soon as possible." he grinned.

"No! Hokage-sama, you can't be serious!" yelled a voice from the crowd. Tsunade looked out,

"Who said that?" she asked. One of her advisers stood up. Tsunade raised her eyebrows. Some people just never accepted defeat. "Anyone else have a problem with my choice of successor?" at those words, a few more of her advisors stood up. She rolled her eyes.

"Ok. It's clear that you will be unable to work with Naruto as your Hokage. So you won't have to." she said. A look of hope bloomed on their faces.

"You mean. . ." asked one, his face lighting up.

"Yes. You're all fired." she stated calmly. The delighted expression vanished.

"What! But, there's no one to replace us!"

"Nonsense. Of course there is. You." she pointed to Shian. "You have his job."

"Eh? What? Me?" he asked. "O-Ok."

"You." Tsunade pointed at Iruka. "You're hired to."

"WHAT? But I can't, I'm just, you don't-"

"You put up with that brat for years, you're the best choice for this."

"But! I, you, they-"

"Shhhhh." Kakashi said. "Just go up there." he gave Iruka a small shove. Tsunade fixed the remaining advisors.

"Now, do the rest of you have a problem with Naruto?" she asked. They shook their heads. "Good. Now if we may proceed?" They each nodded their head, apparently trying to make up for anything she might call them on by he shear force of their nods.

"Ok. Um, there's just one small problem. I don't know haw to make anyone Hokage. What happened to me was my old team-mate and his gaki student showed up 'Oh, hi, how are you, nice to see you again, oh by the way, you're the Hokage." Tsunade said with a pointed look at Jiraiya and Naruto, the team mate and gaki in question, who had the grace to look at least a bit sheepish. "So does anyone know how to make someone Hokage?' she asked. There was a mutual shaking of heads through out the crowd as they gave a small laugh. SO that was how they has ended up with her as the Hokage.

"Ok then I'm just going to wing it." she shrugged. "Naruto, get up here."

Naruto blinked, before walking up the stage, his face a mixture of shock and happiness.

"Ok, Uzumaki Naruto, in honour of your heroic act in defending this village, and the, some what forced, will of the villagers to make you their leader, you are now the Hokage." she opened the box in her arms that had been attracting curious looks since the beginning. It was quite lovely, a deep mahogany, with gold trimmed edges.

She pulled out a long piece of fabric, which she shook out. The crowd gave a collective gasp as she held it up for everyone to see it. It was a pure white cloak, with red flames brushing up the bottom and red kanji running up the spine. The cloak of the Yondaime.

"Naruto. You're father wanted you to have this." Tsunade said as she settled it on his shoulders. The word father spread through the crowd like wildfire. Whispered over and over, shocked. Kids tugged on their mothers skirts. What did it mean? What was the big deal, who's father? Who's cloak was that, it was cool, could they have one like that? The parents, still to shocked to be able to respond properly, told them to hush.

Tsunade, breaking away from her 'moment' with Naruto, suddenly seemed to realize that they had an audience who hadn't missed the father comment. She gave a nervous laugh.

"Oh, didn't anyone ever tell you. Naruto here is the son of the Yondaime." there were more shocked gasps and now even the children turned to look at him with new comprehension dawning in their eyes. In the silence, only one voice was heard.

"Wait a sec. NARUTO is the YONDAIME'S SON! WHAT THE HELL?" Sakura screeched. Only her team mates, who were used to her sudden shrieks, and Tsunade, who had taught her how to yell _louder_, didn't flinch.

"What, Sarutobi-sensei never mentioned it?" she asked innocently.

"NO!"

"Well, now you know." She gave an impish grin. "I can see that you all need time to deal with this. In the mean time, we'll be leaving. Bye." she tugged Naruto down off stage. The crowd was still to shocked to even comment as Tsunade led the new Rokudaime off the stage. When they got down, she gave him a small shove in Sasuke's direction. "Go on Naruto, they'll be here tomorrow, you should celebrate now."

"Oh god no! I did more than enough of that last week. I never want to see Kiba that drunk again!" Naruto laughed. Sasuke, who had over heard this comment, got a slightly horrified look on his face.

"No, you really don't. There will be no celebrating. Ever."

16161616161616161616161616161616

"Look at them, it's driving me crazy!" Naruto exclaimed. Sasuke glanced over to where the blonde was pointing.

"Naruto, their playing chess. Again."

"Yeah, but watch for a second. See, every time Itachi pauses to think, Kyuubi will watch him. And vice versa. That's why they play so much. To watch each other."

"What ever you say Naruto, what ever you say."

"Ok fine, you don't believe me, let me tell you about the first time they met."

- - -Flashback- - -

"Truce! Truce! I surrender!" Naruto laughed as Kyuubi tickled him mercilessly. "You. Cheated." Naruto said as he regained his breath. "You know where I'm ticklish from living in my body for 15 years."

Kyuubi shrugged, clearly not caring in the slightest. He opened his mouth to say something, probably not very polite about him not caring, but was interrupted by the door bell.

"Stay here." Naruto said. "I don't remember anyone coming over today." he got up and strode towards the door. Kyuubi sat on the carpet, where he heard a muffled exclamation, then Naruto reappeared in the door way, followed by a man wearing dark sunglasses, a black hoodie and a black scarf, successfully hiding all of his face.

"Ok, it's time for you two to meet. Kyuu, this is Uchiha Itachi. Itachi, lose the mask, this isn't the mob." Naruto grinned. Kyuubi, who's first instinct was to fight at the name of the man who had been trying to kill him for 3 years, before he remembered what Naruto had told him about the man's double life.

That didn't still mean that he wasn't going to try and kill him. He really hoped that Naruto knew what he was doing. Itachi pulled off the hood, scarf and glasses. Kyuubi felt his breath catch in his throat. It was amazing how much different someone looked when they weren't trying to kill you. Interesting. But that wasn't exact the thoughts circulating around in his head. The first thought actually was

"He's hot." or something to that effect. Naruto, who still shared the metal link with the kitsune, caught the edge of Kyuubi's thoughts and grinned.

Itachi's eyes flickered across Kyuubi where he was lying on the floor, to Naruto, who's shirt was rumpled and was still trying to catch his breath.

"Are you two. . . ?" he asked trailing off in a way that could only mean one thing. Kyuubi leapt to his feet.

"No! God no! Ew! I'm Kyuubi No Kitsune." he stuck out his hand, while wondering why it was such a big deal that Itachi know the truth.

"Oh." a sound of slightly confused relief ran through his voice, as if he himself was unsure what it was doing there. "Ok, that makes more sense." he reached his hand to take Kyuubi's.

Kyuubi felt a jolt ripple through him as the other's callused hand touched his. He gave it a quick shake, his eyes meeting the red ones over the space between them, which seemed to shrink a bit as he felt another shock go through him. He let go. Why did his face feel so hot?

- - - End flashback- - -

"Ok fine, maybe they do like each other. But what are _we_ going to do about that?" Sasuke asked.

"Oh, don't worry about that. I have an idea." and with that, and a smirk, Naruto turned and walked over to where the two they were discussing.

"Itachi, Kyuubi, stand up." Naruto said. They both gave him a curious look, but did as he asked anyway.

"Ok, you two obviously like each other. And are equally obviously never going to do something about it without a push." so, with those final words, he gave Kyuubi a small push in the small of the back. Right into Itachi's lips. Sasuke resisted the urge to bang his head on the table.

"You know Naruto, when I said 'push' I didn't mean it literally." he said.

Naruto shrugged. Suddenly, Kyuubi and Itachi both pulled away, before they rounded on Naruto, their eyes furious.

"NARUTO! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!" Itachi yelled, his calm physique flying out the window, his face looking like someone could make s'mores on it. Not waiting for an answer, he fled the room, his angry footsteps echoing behind him. Kyuubi stared as the tip of the long cloak rounded the corner, a slightly depressed look on his face. Naruto at least had the grace to look sheepish.

"Yeah, it worked _great_ Naruto." Sasuke said sarcastically. Naruto turned to him and raised an eyebrow.

"You don't know Kyuu like I do."

1616161616161616161616161616161616161616

"Was kissing me really that bad, Itachi?" Kyuubi almost whispered later. Naruto had conveniently dragged Sasuke from the house earlier. Itachi's head snapped up, taking in the flushed kitsune before him. For once, the golden eyes weren't flickering with mischief, and there was no smile hinting at his mouth.

Itachi found himself blushing slightly, and had no idea what to say. Kyuubi continued, seemingly unaware of the heated gaze he was under.

"Because, I didn't think it was that bad." his face was now red enough to rival his hair and win.

Itachi's own blush deepened. Kyuubi had. . . Liked it? What could this mean. His mouth opened of it's own accord.

"Do you want to. . . Try it again?"

1616161616161616161616161616161616161616

"See, I told you it'd work, didn't I?" he looked pointedly to where Kyuubi and Itachi were making out.

"I'm not sure whether to be grossed out or not."

"Why would you be?"

"That's my older brother."

"I see your point. Oh well, lets leave them to it then."

"Why, doesn't it bother you. After all, Kyuubi did live in your stomach for 17 years."

"Believe me Sasuke, after some of the dreams Kyuubi so delightfully shared, with me, nothing will ever gross me out again"

Sasuke decided that he _really_ didn't want to know.

1616161616161616161616161616161616

"Did you know about this? You did didn't you! And it never occurred to you that I might want to know that my favourite student was the Yondaimes SON!" Iruka demanded of his lover.

"I thought _I_ was your favourite student." he said with a perverted grin. Iruka turned a fascinating shade of red and punched Kakashi not so lightly on the arm.

"Quite joking around. You knew." Iruka said again. Kakashi gave a semi sheepish grin, although it was hard to tell under the layer of fabric that hid his face from view.

"Well, I had a theory, but I think that I was the only one who even thought about it. But after all, Naruto has been my student for almost 5 years now and the Yondaime was my sensei for just as long. And I knew that his wife was pregnant at just the right time for it to be Naruto. Plus the resemblance is uncanny."

" . . .You do know that not only is that not helping, it's making it worse."

"Want me to kiss it better?"

"Baka Hentai!" This was followed by a sharp thwaking sound and an exclimation of pain.

- - - To Be Continued.- - -

Yes, it's short. I'm sorry, I'd write more, but I'm leaving on a trip tomorrow and wanted to get this up before I left. Oh, and unless I get at least 7 of the readers to review, no chapter. So review, got that?


	17. A New 'Room mate'

Ok, this is probably going to be the last chapter, plus the epilogue next chapter, k? Sorry, but I don't have any ideas that could logically happen this soon, so if you guys want, I'll make a sequel, but then again, I might not, I have a new SasuNaru plot I want to write.

Important: Due to a suggestion, I rewrote the part where Itachi and Kyuubi got together so if you want to, go read it. Well, if you're on of thse people who read it in the first 2 or 3 days of the posting, since I changed it on about 2 to 3 days after I posted it. And I bet about 2 percent of you are actually reading this.

- - - Recap- - -

Naruto is made Hokage. Kyuubi and Itachi get together.

- - - End recap- - -

- - Start fic - - -

"Hey Sasuke, would you please help me with my paperwork?" Naruto asked, his lips in an adorable pout as he sat at his desk at home.

"I don't know, isn't the Hokage supposed to do that?" Sasuke asked, smirking. After all, he'd had to put up with 5 years of "I'm going to be the next Hokage! Believe it!" so he really had no sympathy. Even if Naruto was giving the best puppy dog look he'd ever seen

Naruto's face gained a new sulky look. "Fine. Dinners in the oven. I trust you can get it yourself." his voice was a hair warmer than cold. Like holding almost melted ice.

Sasuke felt his smugness drop a bit. Naruto had made him dinner, while he still had paper work to do. Naruto had started working on the papers again, not looking at Sasuke. Sasuke sighed, did he really have a choice now?

"What do I do?" he asked, grabbing a spare chair and pulling it next to where Naruto was working. Naruto hid a grin.

"Well, all you have to do is. . ."

171717171717171717171717171717171717171717171717

"Naruto has Sasuke wrapped around his finger." Itachi sighed, shaking his head in sympathy.

"He learned from the best." Kyuubi replied, smirking a bit.

Itachi raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure." he replied sarcastically. Kyuubi smirked

"Is that a challenge?"

171717171717171717171717171717171717171717171717

The room was filled with the quite buzz of whispered conversations. Iruka and Shian were sitting awkwardly, not sure exactly what they should be doing. With a sigh, Naruto sat down, causing almost instant silence on the part of the advisors.

"Ok, the first thing that we need to do is figure out who the next Anbu captain, as I'm now Hokage, and unable to continue this position. But before they I have another important issue to bring before the council. And as I'm sure you won't believe me, I'm glad that the former Hokage has decided to assist me in this issue." Naruto said, his voice holding all the power and strength of is predecessors.

At his words, Tsunade and a man who face was hidden entered the room. Naruto to nodded to her, than turned back to the council.

"I'm sure that you all remember Uchiha Itachi?" he asked, his voice light. At the careful nods around the table, he continued. "And I'm sure you all remember the mass murder of the Uchiha clan about 12 years ago?" more nods. "Uchiha Itachi was not responsible. He was framed by Orochimaru." there were gasps and murmurs of disbelief.

"Why would he do that? And why didn't Uchiha-san come forward and say that he was framed?" one man asked, not unkindly, with genuine curiosity. Naruto grinned.

"I'm glad you asked. You see, Orochimaru has always been threatened by the powerful Uchiha's, Itachi especially. So he killed all of them, leaving only two alive. One would be hunted and killed by his own village, and the other would come to him for power, leaving him with a powerful ally and no powerful enemies."

"Ok, but why did he play along?"

"Because, Konoha has been looking for someone to be a believable Akatsuki spy. Which means one has to desert their chosen village, as Itachi would have to were his name not cleared. So he did just that and has been reporting back to the Hokages for twelve years. We've had to do it carefully, so no one would suggest. Like when Sakura fought Sasori, Tsunade arranged it so that she would have exactly the right ingredients for the toxins Itachi told us he had."

". . . And why are you telling us this now?" Shian asked. Naruto's grin widened.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present to you, Uchiha Itachi." he said as Itachi took off his hood with the dramatics fitting an Uchiha.

171717171717171717171717171717171717171717171717

Now came the easy part, announcing the return of their favourite ninja to the villagers, who didn't know about missing nins and such, and had so merely assumed that the elder Uchiha had left on some prolonged mission or another. They had taken the return of their captain rather well.

The only other matter that needed to be addressed to the public was the minor detail as to who was going to teach the children now that Iruka was no longer available for the task. Naruto had mused over this before proclaiming that Hinata should take over this task.

Hinata had stuttered that she couldn't possibly, although what she couldn't possibly was interrupted by Naruto saying she could and she would be great at it and that was the end of that.

Several months passed in this fashion before Kyuubi and Itachi finally got tired of Sasuke's stubbornness enough to do something.

171717171717171717171717171717171717171717171717

"Why hasn't Sasuke asked Naruto to move in with him. You know, to the Uchiha mansion and everything?"

"I don't know. Maybe he thinks that Naruto wouldn't want to move in with him?"

"If he thinks that, he's a bigger baka than you are, and that's saying something. The whole village can see that Naruto really wants to move in with Sasuke. I even heard some of the men on guard duty betting on when Sasuke would work up the guts."

"When did they find out?"

"You don't remember? When that guard burst in without announcing himself first and caught the two of them making out?"

"Oh right. It was the talk of the village for a few weeks."

"Well, at least it never gets boring."

"You can say that again."

"Hey, Itachi, if you ever do go back to the mansion, can move in with you to?"

"Do you really think that you need to ask? I'm just waiting for outoto to work up the guts to ask Naru-chan so he won't suspect that Sasuke only asked him because I asked you. Naruto might not act like it, but he's pretty sensitive over these sort of things."

"Don't tell me. I not only lived with him, I lived _in_ him. I've never seen some one so confident be so insecure. I think he's scared that one of Sasuke's fangirls will steal him away. And you're brother isn't doing anything to help."

They continued to talk along this line until they both felt Sasuke's presence fade, then exchanged a triumphant grin.

"So, Itachi, can I really move in?" Kyuubi asked. Itachi grinned, before pulling Kyuubi closer and kissing him soundly.

"Does that answer your question."

"I dunno. You might just have to do it again."

171717171717171717171717171717171717171717171717171717171717

Sasuke wandered down the streets of Konoha. He now had the answer to one of his questions, he at least knew that Naruto probably wouldn't say no if he were to ask the boy to move in with him. But what if Sasuke screwed it up? What if those two were wrong. What if Naruto, now with his own personal harem, found someone more worthy than Sasuke. What if-

He could drive himself crazy if he kept thinking like this. But how should he ask?

"Hey Naruto want to shack up together?" was out of the question, as was the prospect of Sasuke just moving all of Naruto's stuff. In love or not, Naruto did not appreciate anyone touching his stuff, Sasuke included.

Maybe he could ask Sakura? While undeniably annoying on some matters, she knew Naruto as well as Sasuke and in some ways, better. She also knew the romantic crap and laws and strings attached to asking someone to move in with you.

This decided, he altered his aimless wanderings to a more purposeful wander towards the pink haired kunoichi house. He could only hope that her parents weren't home. Last time he had visited, they had tried to get Sasuke and Sakura married on the spot. Damn parents.

But for Naruto, he would take that risk. So Naruto had better appreciate it. It was then that Sasuke realized exactly what he was thinking. He was Uchiha Sasuke dammit and no pink haired parents were going to scare him away from asking his boyfriend to move in with him.

This was probably considered by the normal world, an odd situation. He was not at all concerned about that thoughts of his potential roommates parents reactions. No he was most worried about said potential roommates ex-crushed parents reactions, which also happened to be the creepy deamon (he added a silent 'No offence' to Kyuubi) parents who had tried to force him to marry said potential-roommates-ex-crush. And his head was beginning to spin in circles, so it was altogether a good thing that he had reached Sakura's house.

After peeking in the blinds to make sure her deranged parents weren't at home, he knocked on the door. Almost instantly it was flung open by Sakura, her eyes excited and her hair flying around her. When she saw Sasuke, her face fell.

"Oh, it's you." she said. Sasuke raised an eyebrow. This hadn't been the result he expected. Sakura seemed to realize that that probably hadn't sounded that nice and hastened o reassure Sasuke that she hadn't meant it like that at all, it was just that she had been expecting some one else and also Sasuke was kind of being an oblivious moron at the moment and of course that she meant that in the nicest way possible and-

Sasuke had cut her off there as her face was starting to turn a very clashing shade of blue in her haste to not offend him. Grinning, he asked if he could please come in. Sakura looked slightly surprised and said that sure he could come in.

As they sat down and Sakura had offered Sasuke tea, Sasuke noticed a small smirk lingering on the corners of her mouth.

"What?" Sasuke asked, lowering his cup. Sakura grinned

"You've changed. Ever since you started dating Naruto."

"I have not! I'm the same as I ever was!" Sasuke said. Sakura raised her eyebrows.

"Are you kidding me? You just grinned! You just asked if you could come in! You just protested instead if glaring! You just showed up at my door for romance advice."

"I, huh! You-Wha?" Sasuke finished eloquently. Sakura grinned.

"Lets face it Sasuke, you don't do social visits, at least never to my house not after. . . Last time. So the only reason that you'd be here is for advice, and considering that Naruto has been sulking around for a few weeks, you must be here for romantic advice." She ended this with a triumphant wink in his direction.

Sasuke stared at her. "Ok, and where from that did you get, what was it that you called me earlier, oh right an 'oblivious moron' was it?"

"Oh, right, that's for not asking Naruto to move in with you." She nodded, clearly feeling that just words weren't sufficient.

"That's what I came to talk to you about-" he started, before he was interrupted.

"I knew it! You want to propose don't you? Sweep him dramatically off his feet and give him the most beautiful ring ever and-" her eyes were beginning to get big and sparkly and Sasuke knew that it would be best to stop her before it got really bad.

"No! That is not what I want to ask! No way in HELL!"

Her face fell dramatically. "It's not? You don't want to be with him forever? Sasuke, how could you-"

"Shut up! I never said I'll never want to ask him, just. . . Not yet." he was blushing faintly, but Sakura figured that for the sake of her life, she wouldn't mention that

"Ok, than what do you want help with?"

"Like you said, I want Naruto to move in to the Uchiha mansion with me."

"Ok, no problem! What do you have so far?"

"Um. . . ."

Sakura rolled her eyes, the sarcastic unspoken '_boys_' she was clearly thinking lingering in the air. "Ok, well I don't think it should be to dramatic, you need to save that for the marriage proposal. It needs to be simple. But not to simple. Hm. . . ." there was silence as they both sat thinking of ideas.

"I got it!" Sakura said after about half an hour and 36.5 failed plans later. "How about this. . ." she leaned over to whisper into Sasuke's ear.

171717171717171717171717171717171717171717171717171717171717

"And this." he said dramatically "is the livening room!" he opened the door, revealing a large room with a TV that took up almost the entire left wall. There were chairs and couches sprinkled at random, as well as a large cabinet filled with, what looked like, every movie ever made.

Sasuke had been giving Naruto the grand tour of the Uchiha mansion for the last few hours, and they were still only half way through. Naruto had come to the conclusion that he could have fit his own house into each and every one of the rooms, even the bathroom, although that was mostly due to the bath tubs that were attempting to become swimming pools.

"This is my favourite part of the house." Sasuke said, softly pushing a door open, revealing a winding stair case. They both began climbing. When they reached the top of the stair, there was a hatch door, which Sasuke opened, offering a hand to help Naruto out. Naruto gasped.

All the walls were made of red wood. About half way up, they turned into a single sheet of glass that stretched along the entire room. Each wall contained a low book shelf that did not obscure the view. Stretching from one part of the room to the other was a carefully woven hammock, which was covered with plush pillows and such.

Naruto stifled a grin when he saw that most of the books were the same as the books he himself owned. He looked back at Sasuke and was surprised to see that the Uchiha had a nervous expression on his face.

"Wha?" he started to ask, before Sasuke hesitantly took his hand and led him over to the hammock, tugging him down.

"Naruto. I want to ask you something." he said, his voice quite. Naruto felt his heart drop. Did Sasuke want to break up? Was he upset that the villagers had found out? Did he not like being in the spotlight because he was the Hokage's boyfriend? Naruto took a deep breath, preparing himself for-

"Naruto, do you want to move in here. With me?"

-not that. Naruto froze, his mouth dropping open, his eyes widening. Had Sasuke just?

"Naruto?" he asked. "If you don't-" that broke Naruto from his daze.

"Of course I do!" his eyes were glowing again, his grin lighting up the room.

17171717171717171717171717171717

"We shouldn't be doing this you know." Kyuubi said, not looking away non the less. Itachi looked at him, and eyebrow raised.

"Well than, Naruto shouldn't have left his scrying thing out." he poured himself another cup of tea, and refilled Kyuubi's. "Sugar?" he held out the bowl.

"No thanks. There's enough sweetness here to drown something." Kyuubi made a face at the glass. Itachi grinned.

"So, how did Naruto make this?" he tapped the picture reflected in the circle of mirror, which rippled vaguely. Kyuubi shrugged.

"No idea. I think he just put some of his chakra in it and tweaked it a bit and now when you put your own chakra into it, and think of the place and person you want to see, it appears. Pretty useful, but you still need a specific place and name. And a picture of that person in your head."

"How did he think of _that_?" Itachi asked incredulously. Kyuubi shrugged again.

"His father made up jutsu's to. And since he has no Kekkei Genkai like you Uchiha's or Hyuuga's, I think that this is his bloodline. Passed through the Uzumaki blood."

"Huh, go figure."

". . . Itachi, we should really turn this off. Their making out now."

"Really? Let me see!" he tried to snatch the glass out of Kyuubi's hands, only to be swatted. "What? I just want to see if my outoto inherited my awesome and mighty kissing prowess."

Kyuubi snickered. "Awesome and mighty? We've been making out for almost three moths and I have yet to see and 'Awesome and mighty'"

"Really? Let me show you."

1717171717171717171717171717171717171717171717171717171717171717

"Naruto, what are you doing?" Sasuke asked, having found Naruto rummaging under his couch. Hr had let it slid when he found Naruto under his bed and behind his TV, but this was a bit much. Naruto's head popped out, his hair ruffled and his face smudged with dirt.

"Checking your house for cameras." he said matter a-factly. "Unless you want your fangirls selling pictures of us again." he grinned.

"Again?"

"Oh, yeah, I caught one of the secretaries with a 'yaoi calendar.' guess what was the main feature."

". . . I don't want to know. I really don't." he said as Naruto's head disappeared under the couch again.

"Why didn't you stop them?" he asked.

"Oh, I figured it wasn't that big of a deal. And I demanded 25 percent of the sales."

"Please tell me your kidding."

"Nope. Oh and you'll never guess who was running the whole thing."

"Who? Sakura?"

"No, that Hikaru girl, the one who gave Itachi his nail polish. And she says Itachi and some red haired guy gave her the pictures. Two guesses who that was. I thought you might want to take care of that."

"Oh, he is so dead." Sasuke stomped off to find his brother in the other half of the house. Naruto would have grinned, had he not been afraid of landing himself with a mouthful of dirt. This was going to be interesting.

1717171717171717171717171717171717171717171717171717171717171717

"Hey, Kyuubi?" Sasuke asked a few weeks later, "Whats wrong with Naruto?" he was referring, of course, to the unusually long amount of time that Naruto had been spending in his 'studio' of sorts. Kyuubi gave him an innocent look.

"What do you mean?" even his tone was innocent, eerily reminiscent of a small child. Sasuke, how ever wasn't fooled and proceeded to give Kyuubi a _look_. Kyuubi just blinked at his, his ears not even perked as they were when he was in his most mischievous mind frame. So it wasn't prank related.

Which reminded him, how had Kyuubi managed to pull that off? The villagers had accepted that Naruto was a separate entity from the nine tails, but there was no way that they would accept Kyuubi himself. And close-minded they may be but they weren't blind. They _did_ notice when one of the new comers had auburn ears and a tail.

When he asked Kyuubi about this, Kyuubi had explained that he had told the villagers that he was a deamon half blood and that he had been rejected from the deamon clan and had come to pledge his service to the Legendary Rokudaime, although the village girls said that he spent most of his 'services' with the Anbu captain that the Hokage.

Now, hoping that he would have distracted Kyuubi enough with this question, he rephrased his earlier inquiry, hoping to surprise an answer from him. Kyuubi just grinned and patted his shoulder in an almost sympathetic manner.

"Don't worry Sasuke, it's for your own sanity that I don't tell you. And for you that he's going to all this trouble." and he had walked off, his tail waving in mocking triumph.

Sasuke resisted the urge to stick out his tongue. That had been completely useless.

Turns out, that when he did find out, he had passed out, so maybe Kyuubi had been right about his sanity, although he had been long since convinced that it had been lost the day he and Naruto had gotten together in the first place.

But that was a sacrifice he was willing to make.

- - - To Be Continued (Sort of) - - -

Those of you who can guess what the jutsu is get that SasuNaru calendar. Oh, and next chapter will be the epilogue. I'm sorry. See you! Review! (goes off to write chapter 2 of Sound Of Lies, which you should read)

Oh, and I have reached a new level of patheticness. I am up at 6 in the morning, having gotten no sleep, because I was reading FMA fluff. I need to get a life. I really do. Oh, and I loved the episodes of Naruto that were on tonight! (goes off to rewatch the scene where Naruto decides he wants to live for Sasuke) Oh! And we heard Itachi's voice for teh first time! And I was confused at one point, becuase there was a person who I could _swear_ was Orochimaru, but they were a girl. and they were from Grass. T.T (Any one who can explain that, please do)


	18. A New Ending

Oh my god! The last chapter. The epilogue! Wow! I feel so sad. Um, 2 people guessed what the jutsu was. Just one. Shame on you people. And congrats to those of you who _did_ guess.

Oh, and much thanks for the help on the whole Orochimaru thing. The reason I was confused is because I was cleaning my disaster known as my bed room and only watched what little I saw when I passed through the TV room. Maybe I should have watched all of it before being confused. -.-'

- - - Recap- - -

Naruto is now living with Sasuke and working in a secret jutsu

- - - End Recap - - -

- - - Start Chapter - - -

More months passed in a strange and hectic way that only may the simple things better. Sasuke had decided that it would be a good idea to raid Naruto's boxes as they were being moved in and had ended up with all the presents he had never gotten along with a lump on his head for his troubles.

He was unsurprised to see that they were mostly all weapons and powerful jutsus. Exactly what he would have wanted at that time. Naruto had known him almost better than he had known himself and much better than the so-called stalkers who, for all their following and proclaimed obsession, could still not figure out that he had never and would never want home made chocolates.

Kyuubi, apparently, did not agree with this and had not hesitated to hint, and more, to Itachi that he would definitely love such chocolates. Naruto had expressly forbidden that Itachi ever be allowed to use the kitchen. And that was how Sasuke found himself in the large kitchen trying to convince Itachi that No, you did not cook chocolate in the rice maker and _yes_ he was positive that was what it was and if Itachi didn't get his hand out of the batter, Sasuke would steal all of it for himself and give it to Naruto.

Itachi had merely raised a sceptical eyebrow and asked why Sasuke didn't have his _own_ chocolates to give his boyfriend. Sasuke had said why on earth would he, it was _Kyuubi's_ birthday in question. Itachi had not dignified this with a response.

Sasuke had taken the chilli pepper away and decided not to wonder what Itachi was planning to do with it.

18181818181818181818181818181818181818181818181818181818181818

Sasuke had been trying to erase the memories of that day ever since. So far he had managed to do remarkably well, although he still flinched should anyone mention chocolate syrup. It was now July 23 and it was his own birthday.

His surprise party had not been a surprise at all and he had spent most of it trying to avoid everyone. It was 10 when he _finally_ managed to get even the drunk Kiba out of there. It was then that he noticed a small, unopened box lying innocently on the floor. Blinking, he stooped to pick it up. As he did so, he wondered vaguely where Naruto was and why wasn't he doing it?

Opening it up, he found a small scroll wound tightly. He frowned. What was it? Naruto had already givin him a gift. A promise ring on a fine golden chain that had elected sighs and 'awws' from the surrounding guests. Although the kiss he had giving Naruto had only resulted in whistles and a 'Get a room!'.

He pulled the bright red string off of the scroll, which sprang open in his hands. As did his mouth as he saw the title at the top

**_NinShin No Jutsu_** (Pregnancy jutsu)

A grin began to tug at the corners of his mouth. This could definitely work. With that in mind, he headed towards the bed room.

- - - -

"Woah! Woah! Hold on! Stop!" Ryou interjected. "You aren't going to tell us, about you know. . . Where we came from or anything, are you? Because Dad gave me that speech last year!"

Sasuke grinned and ruffled his sons hair. He opened his mouth to say something, but Haku interjected, her dark eyes wide with eight year old curiosity.

"Why Father? What happened?" her voice was filled with innocence. "How come you told aniki something and not me?"

Sasuke looked uncomfortable. "Um, Naruto. I told them the story. You can tell this to Haku."

His husband pouted "But I told Ryou! It's your turn!"

"Fine. You see Haku, when two people. . ."

- - -Owari - - -

. . . . Is it just me or does that not seem done to you? Oh well, I'll just put it in the sequel. Which by the way, you get to chose

I can

A) write it like a regular, sequenced story. Or

B) I can write it in a series of chapters that are not linked specifically but happen in chronological order but not day after day. Just the important stuff.

I'd really rather do B, and will probably do it any way. No offence, but it'd be easier, it'd fit with my plans better and I'd update faster.

Bye Bye!


End file.
